iUBBWBUUtUu. 


THE  CALL  OF 
THE  WORLD 


BV 

2060 
.D65 
1912 


E  ^  DOUGHTY 


Cibrarjo  of  ^he  t:heolo0ical  ^tminavy 

PRINCETON  .  NEW  JERSEY 

FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 
ROBERT  ELLIOTT  SPEER 


BV  2060  .D65  1912 
Doughty,  wiliia.  Ellison, 
The  call  of  the  world 


The  Call  of  the  World 


OR,     EVERT      MAN'S 
SUPREME    OPPORTUNITY 


BY 


V^ 


W.  E.  DOUGHTY 

EDUCATIONAL   SECRETARY,    LAYMEN'S   MISSIONARY   MOVEMENT 


NEW  YORK 
LAYMEN'S   MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT 
1912 


PUBLISHED   JOINTLY  BY 

MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  MOVEMENT 

AND 

LAYMEN'S  MISSIONARY   MOVEMENT 


CONTENTS 

FOREWORD 

CHAPTER  I 
THE  WIDENING  SOVEREIGNTY  OF  CHRIST 

WORLD  CONDITIONS  FAVORABLE   TO  THE   SPREAD  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

An  accessible  world,  2 — A  plastic  world,  4 — A  changing 
world,  4 — Increase  in  Christian  populations,  9 — Spread  of 
English  language,  9 — Geographical  control  of  the  world,  11. 

THE    MULTIPLYING  AGENCIES    OF   THE    KINGDOM 

The  number  and  growing  efficiency  of  missionary  societies, 
13 — Resulting  in  unity  and  cooperation,  14 — A  science  of 
missions,  14 — The  application  of  the  principles  of  strat- 
egy, 15 — The  number  of  missionaries,  17— Money,  18 — 
Translation  of  Scriptures,  19. 

SIGNS    OF   WORLD    WIDE  VICTORY 

Progress  of  centuries,  20 — Recent  victories,  21 — The  native 
Church,  25 — Humanitarian  institutions,  27— Social  recon- 
struction, 2"] — Conclusion,  29. 

CHAPTER   II 
THE  CHALLENGE  OF  A  GREAT  TASK    .        .        .    z^-dz 
Unity  of  the  race  34 — Explanation  of  terms,  34— America's 
home  problem,  37— Mexico,  43— South   America,  44— Af- 
rica, 47— Asia,  50 — Near  East,  50 — Central  Asia,  52— India, 
53— Bhutan    and    Nepal,    55— Indo-China,   55— Japan,   55— 
Korea,  56 — China,  56 — Summary,  59. 
iii 


iv  Contents 

CHAPTER    III 

AMERICA'S  POSITION  IN  THE  WORLD  BATTLE 
The  United  States  and  Canada,  a  Common  World  Task,  66 
America's  position  of  leadership  shown  by  strategic  loca- 
tion AND  other  geographical  CONDITIONS. 

America  faces  the  two  great  oceans,  67 — Is  near  to  unde- 
veloped parts  of  the  world,  68 — Has  many  world  harbors, 
6S — Navigable  rivers,  69 — Is  isolated  from  other  command- 
ing powers,  69. 

AMERICA    HAS    QUALITIES    OF    CHARACTER     NEEDED    FOR    A    WORLD 
TASK 

The  pioneers,  71 — Mechanical  genius,  71— Public  school,  72 — 
The  home  missionary,  72 — Home  of  world  movements,  73. 

AMERICA    HAS    RESOURCES    FOR   A    WORLD   TASK 

Size,  75 — Mineral  resources,  77 — Railroads,  77 — Wealth,  78 — 
Agricultural  products,  79. 

AMERICA     MUST    HAVE    VISION    AND    CONSECRATION    ADEQUATE    TO 
HER   TASK 

A  spiritual  enterprise,  82 — America's  share  of  the  world  task, 
83 — Men  and  money  needed,  84. 


CHAPTER   IV 

A  MAN'S  RESPONSE  TO  THE  WORLD  APPEAL 
Efficiency  experts,  87— A  fourfold  program,  89 — Widening 
HORIZON^  90 — Studying  the  Church,  92 — The  missionary 
committee,  93 — Un  with  holding  consecration,  95— Princi- 
ples of  stewardship,  98 — Methods,  loi — Unending  prayer, 
103 — Calls  forth  and  energizes  movements,  106 — Finds  a 
way  out  in  hours  of  crisis,  107 — Fills  gaps  in  thin  line  of 
battle,  107— Togo's  telegram,  109. 


FOREWORD 

The  four  questions  which  the  author  has  most  fre- 
quently heard  in  discussing  world  problems  with  men  are 
the  following: 

What  progress  is  the  missionary  enterprise  making? 

How  much  remains  to  be  done  ? 

What  is  America's  share  of  world  responsibility? 

How  can  men  relate  themselves  in  a  practical  way  to 
the  spread  of  Christianity  throughout  the  world? 

It  is  to  give  a  brief  answer  to  these  four  fundamental 
questions  that  the  following  pages  have  been  prepared 
for  use  in  Missionary  Discussion  Groups,  Men's  Bible 
Classes,  Brotherhoods,  Missionary  Committees,  and 
groups  of  Sunday  School  Officers  and  Teachers.  It 
is  also  confidently  expected  that  many  men  who  cannot 
meet  to  discuss  these  problems  in  any  of  the  groups  men- 
tioned will  read  and  study  the  book  in  private.  In  pre- 
paring the  manuscript  the  author  has  had  in  mind  a 
large  number  of  men  who  are  now  or  should  become 
public  advocates  of  missions.  The  book  presents  in- 
formation which  they  may  use  in  addresses. 

Many  of  the  facts  given  have  been  taken  from  the 
Report  of  the  Edinburgh  World  Missionary  Conference, 
The  World  Atlas  of  Christian  Missions,  The  Statesman's 
Year  Book,  1912,  The  Decisive  Hour  of  Christian  Mis- 
sions, by  John  R.  Mott,  and  The  Unoccupied  Mission 
Fields  of  Africa  and  Asia,  by  S.  M.  Zwemer. 

V 


vi  Foreword 

The  author  is  indebted  to  his  friend,  the  Rev.  W.  R. 
Dobyns,  D.D.,  of  St.  Joseph,  Missouri,  for  the  design 
on  the  cover. 

It  is  the  hope  of  the  author  that  the  reading  and  dis- 
cussion of  the  topics  outHned  in  these  pages  will  inspire 
many  men  to  undertake  to  master  the  world  plans  of 
Christ  and  lead  them  to  enthrone  at  the  center  of  life 
the  missionary  purpose — the  one  purpose  around  which 
a  man  may  build  all  the  facts  of  his  life  and  to  which  he 
may  cling  and  let  everything  else  go  when  he  is  hard 
pressed. 

New  York,  September,  1912. 


THE    CALL    OF  THE   WORLD      j 

CHAPTER   I  ! 

THE    WIDENING    SOVEREIGNTY    OF    CHRIST    IN         i 
THE    WORLD  j 

In  a  discussion  concerning  the  elements  of  an  effec-  j 
tive  speech,  Ex-President  Patton,  of  Princeton  Uni-  ! 
versity,  gave  the  following  outline:  j 

An  effective  speech  must  be  made  up  of  j 

Facts,  I 

Big  facts,  i 

Human  facts,  j 

Related  facts.  \ 

These  suggestions  apply  not  only  to  speeches  but  to        j 
any  case  which  is  to  make  an  effective  appeal  to  men. 
What  subject  is  there  which  so  perfectly  illustrates  the 
principles  stated  by  Dr.  Patton  as  the  missionary  theme?        I 
Nowhere  else  in  all  the  realm  of  thinking  and  action  are        I 
there  such  big,  human,  related  facts  as  in  the  enterprise 
which  has  for  its  goal  the  world-wide  propagation  and 
naturalization  of  Christianity.  j 

Christian  business  men  are  constantly  asking  certain 
pertinent  questions  about  any  business  undertaking.  Is 
it  honest?  Is  it  safe?  Will  it  pay?  Is  it  big  enough 
to  be  worth  while?    Will  it  succeed?    Will  it  last? 

Men  have  a  right  to  ask  such  questions  about  busi- 

I  -  j 


2  The  Call  of  the  World 

ness.  They  have  an  equal  right  to  make  the  same 
thorough  and  searching  investigation  of  the  proposition 
to  evangeHze  the  v^orkl.  Confident  of  the  power  of  the 
cause  to  capture  and  hold  men  when  once  it  has  had  a 
chance  at  them,  believing  that  this  is  the  greatest  case 
that  has  ever  challenged  the  manhood  of  the  world,  some 
of  the  evidences  of  the  widening  sovereignty  of  Christ  in 
the  world  are  marshaled  here.  The  Scriptures  unmis- 
takably indicate  that  God  has  pledged  universal  do- 
minion to  his  Son.  The  facts  which  follow  are  concrete 
illustrations  of  the  truth  of  the  missionary  principles  of 
the  Bible.  The  gathering  momentum  of  the  Kingdom 
makes  an  Irresistible  appeal. 

For  convenience  the  facts  may  be  grouped  under  three 
general  heads: 

World  Conditions   Favorable  to  the   Spread  of 
Christianity 
The  Multiplying  Agencies  of  the  Kingdom 
Signs  of  World-Wide  Victory 

I.    World  Conditions  Favorable  to  the  Spread  of 
Christianity 

An  Accessible  World. — i.  Improved  means  of  inter- 
communication. That  we  live  in  a  contracting  world  is 
strikingly  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  when  Robert  Mor- 
rison went  to  China  it  took  him  seventy-eight  days  to 
reach  New  York  from  England,  and  four  months  to  go 
from  New  York  to  China.  Hunter  Corbett,  of  China, 
who  was  six  months  on  his  way  the  first  time  he  took  the 
trip,  made  the  journey  a  few  months  ago  in  twenty- 
one  days.    It  is  now  possible  to  go  from  Peking  to  Lon- 


The  Widening  Sovereignty  of  Christ  3 

don  in  twelve  and  one-half  days  over  the  Trans-Siberian 
Railroad.  A  recent  journey  around  the  world  was  made 
in  thirty-eight  days.  When  Jules  Verne  published 
Around  the  World  in  Eighty  Days,  the  journey  described 
was  laughed  at  as  an  impossible  feat.  To-day  it  is  pos- 
sible to  circle  the  globe  in  less  than  one  half  the  time  of 
which  Jules  Verne  wrote  in  his  book.  It  took  the  old 
Greeks  forty  days  to  go  the  length  of  the  Mediterranean 
Sea  in  their  swiftest  triremes.  The  greatest  stretch  of 
open  water  in  the  world  is  10,000  miles  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  There  are  vessels  afloat  to-day  that  can  traverse 
the  10,000  miles  in  one  half  the  time  that  it  took  the 
old  Greeks  to  go  the  length  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 

2.  The  nations  of  the  earth  are  accessible  because  of 
changed  sentiment. 

There  are  to-day  no  lands  in  the  world  which  are 
closed  entirely  to  modern  influence  and  only  a  few 
which  do  not  at  least  tolerate  the  Christian  missionary 
with  his  advanced  ideas  of  civilization  and  progress.  It 
is  difficult  to  estimate  the  amazing  changes  in  senti- 
ment in  lands  where  missionaries  have  been  at  work  even 
for  a  generation,  as  in  Korea,  or  for  a  century  or  more, 
as  in  India  or  China. 

It  is  unthinkable  that  there  should  ever  be  another 
Chinese  wall  shutting  out  all  world  contact.  Edicts  in 
force  as  late  as  1870  ordering  the  death  of  Christians  in 
Japan  are  now  exhibited  only  as  relics  of  a  buried  past. 
The  twentieth  century  is  making  hermit  nations  impos- 
sible. 

3.  A  mental  attitude  has  been  created  in  the  non- 
Christian  world  which  nothing  but  Christ  can  satisfy. 
This  may  be  only  an  indefinite  restlessness  and  dissatis- 


4  The  Call  of  the  World 

faction  with  existing  conditions  in  many  cases,  but  it 
is  apparently  true  that  the  principles  of  the  Christian 
gospel  have  created  an  altogether  new  mental  attitude 
in  the  world.  It  is  stated  by  one  of  the  great  missionary 
authorities  in  India  that  there  are  millions  of  people  in 
that  land  who  are  intellectually  converted  to  the  gospel 
who  have  not  yet  yielded  personal  allegiance  to  Christ. 
This  mental  attitude  is  an  enormous  asset  to  the 
Kingdom. 

A  Plastic  World. — The  nations  of  our  day  are  plas- 
tic to  a  degree  never  before  witnessed.  Heat,  pressure, 
and  decay,  are  some  of  the  forces  which  make  physical 
substances  plastic.  There  are  intellectual  and  moral  and 
spiritual  forces  which  produce  a  like  effect  on  men  and 
nations.  As  great  heat  applied  to  metal  fuses  it,  so  the 
ideas  and  forces  of  the  twentieth  century  have  fused  the 
non-Christian  world.  Pressure,  such  as  foreign  aggres- 
sion, world  commerce,  and  modern  science  have  helped 
to  bring  about  the  present  plastic  state  in  vast  sections 
of  the  world.  Added  to  these  two  and  accompanying 
them  are  the  forces  of  disintegration  and  decay  in  the 
old  religions,  old  forms  of  government,  and  the  customs 
and  habits  of  centuries.  In  itself  this  present  remark- 
able state  of  the  non-Christian  world  has  no  moral 
quality.  The  significant  thing  is  that,  while  nations  are 
in  a  plastic  state,  they  offer  special  opportunity  to  put 
the  stamp  of  Christianity  on  them  before  they  harden 
again,  and  to  determine  the  direction  their  civilization 
shall  take  by  building  into  them  the  principles  of  Chris- 
tian civilization  and  the  Christian  faith. 

A  Changing  World. — One  of  the  most  impressive 
evidences  that  the  leaven  of  Christian  civilization  is  at 


The  Widening  Sovereignty  of  Christ  r 

work  in  the  non-Christian  world  is  the  fact  that  there 
are  wide-spread  changes  taking  place.  God  has  been 
shaping  and  preparing  the  nations  in  the  interests  of  a 
world-wide  gospel.  The  extent  and  character  of  these 
changes  make  the  present  the  most  momentous  hour  in 
the  history  of  the  non-Christian  world. 

The  extent  of  the  changes  may  best  be  illustrated  by 
comparing  the  present  awakening  with  other  great  his- 
toric movements  of  the  last  two  thousand  years.  In 
naming  the  epoch-making  movements  of  the  Christian 
Era  the  following  could  not  be  omitted:  The  Renais- 
sance, The  Mohammedan  Conquest,  The  Crusades,  The 
Reformation,  The  American  Revolution,  The  French 
Revolution,  The  Wesleyan  Revival,  and  The  Rise  of 
Popular  Governments.  On  examination  it  is  discovered 
that  each  of  these  movements  was  confined  to  a  com- 
paratively limited  geographical  area,  one  or  two  of  the 
countries  of  Europe,  or  certain  racial  sections  such  as 
the  Anglo-Saxon,  or  the  countries  bordering  on  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  or,  as  in  the  case  of  the  American 
Revolution^  England  and  America.  While  these  move- 
ments were  all  of  far-reaching  significance  they  affected 
directly  only  a  few  countries.  But  to-day  all  Asia  is 
awake,  Africa  is  stirring  with  life  as  never  before,  and 
the  South  American  lands  are  in  the  midst  of  a  period 
of  commercial  activity  and  of  progress  unparalleled.  In- 
stead of  a  limited  area  millions  of  square  miles  are  in 
the  midst  of  far-reaching  changes. 

The  great  awakenings  of  the  last  twenty  centuries  in- 
fluenced directly  only  a  few  millions  of  people  in  con- 
trast with  the  awakening  of  to-day  which  affects 
THREE    FOURTHS    OF    THE    HUMAN    RACE. 


6  The  Call  of  the  World 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  vast  populations  involved  as 
well  as  of  the  immense  territory  affected  the  zvorld  has 
never  seen  an  awakening  of  such  magnitude  as  that 
which  is  taking  place  in  our  time. 

In  character  also  the  present  movement  is  eclipsing  all 
former  awakenings  in  history.  One  of  the  most  satis- 
factory ways  of  measuring  the  power  of  any  movement 
is  to  analyze  it  in  relation  to  the  fundamental  institu- 
tions of  society.  Reducing  civilization  to  its  simplest 
terms  society  is  built  around  five  great  institutions.  In 
one  column  the  institutions  are  named,  in  the  other  the 
human  relations  which  each  represents. 

The  Home — social. 
The  State — political. 
The  Shop — commercial. 
The  School — educational. 
The  Church — religious. 

While  the  illustration  must  not  be  carried  too  far,  yet 
in  a  striking  way  it  is  true  that  the  great  awakenings  of 
the  last  two  thousand  years  have  been  characterized  by 
only  one  or  two  central  and  controlling  principles.  The 
Renaissance  was  an  intellectual  awakening,  thus  chang- 
ing the  educational  life  of  Europe.  The  Reformation 
was  religious  and  profoundly  influenced  the  Church. 
The  Rise  of  Popular  Governments  was  political  and  be- 
gan a  new  era  for  the  state.  So  on  through  the  list. 
By  way  of  contrast,  we  are  today  in  the  midst  of  an 
awakening  which  radically  affects  all  these  fundamental 
institutions  of  society.  In  China,  for  example,  a  move- 
ment is  in  progress  which  is  not  simply  affecting  the 
state,  or  the   social  life,  or  the  religious  character  of 


The  Widening  Sovereignty  of  Christ  7 

the  people,  but  is  transforming  all  five  of  the  funda- 
mental institutions  of  life.  As  Dr.  J.  E.  Williams^  of 
Nanking  University,  puts  it:  "If  we  could  conceive  of 
the  Renaissance  of  learning  after  the  dark  ages,  the  in- 
terest in  literature  that  came  with  the  study  of  Latin  and 
Greek,  and  the  awakening  of  thought  that  followed  upon 
the  discovery  of  new  worlds — material  and  intellectual — 
and  then  add  to  this  the  new  forces  of  the  Reformation, 
the  reconstruction  of  men's  moral  and  religious  ideas 
and  ideals  and  the  recovery  of  the  right  of  the  individ- 
ual conscience,  and  if  to  these  we  could  conceive  as 
added  the  French  Revolution — the  break-up  of  all  that 
men  had  regarded  as  final  in  social  and  political  organi- 
zation; and  if  to  these  again  could  be  added  the  move- 
ment of  modern  science,  which  began  with  Lord  Bacon's 
Novum  Organum — and  the  application  of  the  inductive 
method  in  the  discovery  of  the  forces  and  law^s  of  na- 
ture; and,  if  further  we  could  conceive  of  these  great 
forces  as  operating,  not  at  different  times,  in  different 
countries,  through  a  period  of  several  centuries,  but  as 
combined  and  concentrated  in  a  brief  decade  or  two  in 
one  country  upon  a  great  people,  we  should  have  a  more 
adequate  conception  of  the  magnitude  and  significance 
of  the  present  Revolution  in  China." 

A  significant  fact  is  that  most  of  the  revolutionary 
forces  and  agencies  which  have  brought  about  the 
awakening  have  come  from  Christian  lands.  The  most 
powerful  single  force  at  work  has  been  the  missionary. 
He  has  carried  with  him  the  finest  ideals  of  Western 
civilization,  and  has  been  able  in  an  unusual  way  to 
bring  the  latest  ideas  in  all  realms  of  life  to  bear  upon 
the  non-Christian  world.    A  condition  exists  which  Pro- 


8  The  Call  of  the  World 

fessor  Ross,  in  The  Changing  Chinese,  a  book  which  it 
will  pay  every  man  to  read,  finely  describes  in  the  fol- 
lowing words : 

"The  crucifixion  was  two  hundred  and  eighty  years 
old  before  Christianity  won  toleration  in  the  Roman  Em- 
pire. It  was  one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  years  after 
Luther's  defiance  before  the  permanence  of  the  Protes- 
tant Reformation  was  assured.  After  the  discovery  of 
the  New  World  one  hundred  and  fifteen  years  elapsed 
before  the  first  English  colony  was  planted  here.  No 
one  who  saw  the  beginning  of  these  great,  slow,  historic 
movements  could  grasp  their  full  import  or  witness  their 
culmination.  But  nowadays  world  processes  are  tele- 
scoped and  history  is  made  at  aviation  speed." 

All  this  makes  it  clear  that  we  have  come  to  an  hour 
of  crisis  in  the  relations  between  Christendom  and  the 
non-Christian  world.  What  is  a  crisis  but  a  point  of 
time  in  the  history  of  the  human  race  when  great  issues 
are  at  stake,  when  there  is  an  unprecedented  break-up  of 
civilizations,  when  Christian  nations  must  make  great  de- 
cisions about  their  relations  with  the  non-Christian 
world.  We  find  everywhere  conditions  that  are  passing 
and  that  will  not  return.  It  is  the  time  of  all  times  for 
men  who  love  Christ  to  make  him  known  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth.  The  situation  is  summarized  in  "the  Mes- 
sage of  the  Edinburgh  Conference,"  in  the  following  lan- 
guage: "The  next  ten  years  will,  in  all  probability, 
constitute  a  turning-point  in  human  history,  and  may  be 
of  more  critical  importance  in  determining  the  spiritual 
evolution  of  mankind  than  many  centuries  of  ordinary 
experience.  If  those  years  are  wasted,  havoc  may  be 
wrought  that  centuries  will  not  be  able  to  repair.     On 


The  Widening  Sovereignty  of  Christ  9 

the  other  hand,  if  they  are  rightly  used,  they  may  be 
among  the  most  glorious  in  Christian  history." 

The  Increase  of  Populations  in  Christian  Countries. 
— At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  entire 
population  of  the  United  States  and  Canada  was  only 
about  5  millions ;  to-day  it  is  100  millions.  In  the  same 
period  of  time  the  populations  of  Europe  have  increased 
from  170  to  450  millions.  During  this  same  hundred 
years  the  population  in  some  parts  of  the  non-Christian 
world  has  declined,  in  others  remained  stationary,  or  the 
growth  has  been  very  slow.  While  the  birth  rate  is 
much  greater  in  many  non-Christian  lands,  the  cheap- 
ness of  human  life,  the  lack  of  sanitary  and  other  con- 
ditions for  safeguarding  life  greatly  increase  the  death 
rate.  The  population  of  the  world  at  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century  was  estimated  to  be  approximately 
1,000  millions.  During  the  nineteenth  century  the  num- 
bers increased  by  about  600  millions.  Europe  and  North 
America  together  increased  in  population  by  nearly  400 
millions  during  that  century.  These  figures  for  the 
world  are  only  estimates  but  are  given  by  the  most 
reliable  students  of  such  matters.  While  exact  figures 
for  the  non-Christian  world  cannot  be  given,  the  sig- 
nificant fact  is  that  there  has  been  a  marvelous  expan- 
sion of  Christian  nations  within  the  last  one  hundred 
years,  far  outstripping  the  expansion  of  other  parts  of 
the  world.  The  nations  which  know  most  of  Christ  and 
his  gospel  have  increased  in  numbers  as  well  as  in  power 
out  of  all  proportion  to  the  rest  of  mankind. 

The  Spread  of  the  English  Language. — We  quote 
from  a  leaflet  entitled  "The  Seven  Wonders  of  the  Mod- 
ern Missionary  World/'  by  Dr.  A.  W.  Halsey. 


10  The  Call  of  the  World 

'The  spread  of  the  English  language  is  one  of  the 
wonders  of  the  age.  The  English  language  is  spoken 
at  the  present  time  by  nearly  200,000,000  people;  each 
year  sees  large  additions  to  the  group  of  English-speak- 
ing peoples.  In  the  Philippines  more  people  to-day  speak 
the  English  language  than  spoke  the  Spanish  language 
after  three  hundred  years  of  Spanish  rule. 

"In  all  higher  education  in  India,  English  is  com- 
pulsory; in  the  secondary  schools  in  India,  English  is 
taught.  In  China,  the  government  has  made  English  a 
part  of  the  regular  curriculum.  In  Japan,  the  students 
are  eager  to  learn  English.  It  is  the  avenue  through 
which  the  missionary  frequently  is  able  to  reach  the 
educated  classes.  In  Syria,  one  of  the  boys  in  the  class- 
room wrote  on  the  blackboard,  'God  is  love'  in  his  own 
language,  thirty  boys  followed,  each  writing  the  text  in 
his  own  language ;  yet  these  boys  sooner  or  later  will  all 
speak  the  English  language.  A  speaker  at  the  Edin- 
burgh Conference  declared  that  some  missionaries  read 
the  Lord's  command  as  though  it  were  written  *Go  and 
teach  all  nations  the  English  language.'  Macaulay  says 
that  whoever  knows  the  English  language  has  'ready 
access  to  the  vast  intellectual  wealth  which  all  the  wisest 
nations  of  the  earth  have  created  and  stored  in  the 
course  of  ninety  generations.'  The  English  language  is 
the  language  of  liberty,  of  law,  of  morals,  of  high  ideals. 
The  English  Bible,  which  has  molded  Anglo-Saxon 
civilization,  is  making  no  small  impress  on  world  civili- 
zation. 

"The  Greek  language  became  the  vehicle  in  which 
the  gospel  story  was  borne  to  the  educated  world  of 
the  first  century.    The  English  language   seems  destined 


The  Widening  Sovereignty  of  Christ         h 

in  the  providence  of  God  to  be  the  bearer  of  the  gospel 
to  the  races  of  the  twentieth  century." 

The  following  table  indicates  the  remarkable  growth 
during  the  nineteenth  century  of  the  English  language 
as  compared  with  other  tongues.  The  estimates  are 
given  by  Mulhall  and  John  Bartholomew  of  Edinburgh 
and  appear  in  the  1912  World  Almanac. 

1801  1901 

French   31,450,000  52,100,000 

German    30,320,000  84,200,000 

Italian    15,070,000  34,000,000 

Spanish    26,190,000  46,500,000 

Portuguese    7,480,000  15,000,000 

Russian    30,770,000  85,000,000 

English 20,520,000  130,300,000 

In  the  light  of  these  figures  the  total  given  by  Dr. 
Halsey  quoted  above  is  perhaps  too  high.  It  will  be 
seen,  however,  that  the  number  speaking  German  has 
multiplied  nearly  threefold  and  the  number  of  those 
speaking  English  six  and  a  half  times  in  the  century  un- 
der review.  Since  an  overwhelming  majority  of  mis- 
sionaries speak  either  English  or  German  or  both,  the 
significance  of  the  spread  of  these  languages  is  apparent. 

The  Geographical  Control  of  the  World. — One  of 
the  most  inspiring  evidences  of  the  widening  sovereignty 
of  Christ  is  that  he  has  passed  over  the  control  of  the 
territory  of  the  w^orld  to  the  Christian  nations.  Accord- 
ing to  Gulick's  Growth  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  in  1600 
only  7  per  cent,  of  the  territory  of  the  world  was  con- 
trolled by  Christian  nations,  but  to-day  82  per  cent.,  so 
that  the  growth  of  Christian  control  has  passed  in  three 


12  The  Call  of  the  World 

hundred  years  from  7  per  cent,  to  82  per  cent.,  while  the 
control  of  non-Christian  nations  has  decreased  from  93 
per  cent,  to  18  per  cent. 

The  increasing  control  of  the  world  by  Christian  na- 
tions is  due  in  no  small  measure  to  the  fact  that  they  are 
masters  of  most  of  the  great  waterways  and  highways  of 
the  world.  The  Suez  and  Panama  Canals  and  the  Khai- 
bar  Pass  in  India  are  striking  illustrations. 

In  1800,  four  hundred  millions  of  people  were  gov- 
erned by  Catholic  and  Protestant  Christian  powers;  in 
1912  at  least  one  thousand  millions,  or  two  and  a  half 
times  as  many  as  were  thus  governed  in  1800.  In  1500, 
there  were  no  Protestant  political  powers  in  the  world. 
To-day,  England,  Germany,  and  the  United  States  rule 
over  about  six  hundred  millions  of  the  population  of  the 
world.  These  three  Protestant  powers  alone  now  have 
dominion  over  more  millions  of  people  than  are  ruled 
over  by  all  the  non-Christian  nations  of  the  world  added 
together. 

The  Mohammedan  world  furnishes  a  startling  illus- 
tration of  this  shifting  control  of  the  world.  A  few 
generations  ago  Mohammedan  political  and  religious 
control  were  coextensive.  To-day  three  fourths  of  the 
Mohammedans  of  the  world  live  in  lands  which  they 
do  not  rule  politically.  The  passing  of  Mohammedan 
political  dominion  from  Africa  is  of  profound  signifi- 
cance for  that  continent.  France  has  extended  and  con- 
solidated her  African  possessions  by  taking  Algeria  and 
establishing  a  protectorate  over  Morocco,  which  is  one 
of  the  greatest  strongholds  of  orthodox  Mohammedan- 
ism. Italy  is  now  in  process  of  taking  control  of  Tripoli. 
Only  a  few  of  the  fifty  or  more  millions  of  Moham- 


The  Widening  Sovereignty  of  Christ         13 

medans  in  Africa  are  under  Moslem  political  rule.  Italy 
has  already  begun  the  construction  of  400  miles  of  rail- 
way in  Tripoli.  In  Algiers  and  down  through  the  Sa- 
hara toward  the  Sudan  the  steel  lines  are  being  laid  by 
France.  God  is  evidently  preparing  his  people  for  a 
great  advance  among  Mohammedans.  The  great  ques- 
tion now  is  whether  his  Church  will  be  equal  to  the 
emergency. 

II.     The  Multiplying  Agencies  of  the  Kingdom 

The  Number  and  Grovi^ing  Efficiency  of  Missionary 
Societies. — More  than  tw^o  hundred  years  ago  Bar- 
tholomew Ziegenbalg  and  his  colaborer  Plutschau  were 
ordained  missionaries  to  India  in  the  city  of  Copenhagen, 
and  two  years  later  the  New  Jerusalem  Church,  the  first 
Protestant  Church  of  the  non-Christian  world,  was  es- 
tablished in  South  India  among  the  Tamil  people.  Later 
the  great  Schwartz  and  others  carried  on  the  work  re- 
sulting in  the  founding  of  the  missionary  work  of  the 
present  day  in  India. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  were 
two  important  missionary  organizations  in  Great  Britain. 
On  the  continent  the  Lutherans  and  Moravians  were 
struggling  heroically  in  the  carrying  on  of  their  mis- 
sionary operations.  There  were  scarcely  more  than  a 
dozen  missionary  societies  altogether  in  the  whole  world, 
either  well  established  or  just  beginning.  It  was  a 
very  small  and  feeble  list  of  organizations  compared  with 
that  of  the  present  day.  The  Edinburgh  Missionary 
Conference  reported  that  there  were  994  missionary 
organizations  in  Christendom  in  1910.  These  have 
nearly  all  come  into  existence  within  the  century. 


14  The  Call  of  the  World 

Among  the  indications  of  increased  efficiency  the  fol- 
lowing may  be  named : 

1.  Unity  and  Cooperation.  It  has  been  well  said  that 
*'The  three  dominant  notes  of  our  time  are  unity,  reality, 
and  universality."  That  there  is  a  growing  spirit  of 
unity  in  the  home  Church  is  illustrated  by  the  way  the 
mission  boards  are  cooperating  in  the  work  of  the  inter- 
denominational missionary  Movements,  by  the  growing 
number  of  interdenominational  training-schools  for  mis- 
sionary candidates,  and  by  organizations  like  the  Home 
Missions  Council  and  the  Conference  of  Foreign  Mission 
Boards  in  which  there  is  interchange  of  ideas  and  plans 
and  methods  among  the  leaders  of  the  home  and  foreign 
missionary  activities. 

Nowhere  have  Christian  unity  and  practical  co5pera- 
tion  made  greater  progress  than  in  the  foreign  missions 
of  American  Churches.  In  several  lands  there  are  now 
conspicuous  illustrations  of  the  practical  working  of  this 
spirit  in  the  organization  of  union  colleges,  theological 
seminaries  and  training  schools  and  in  united  campaigns 
of  many  different  kinds. 

In  Korea  a  union  hymnal  was  issued  some  time  ago 
and  the  first  edition  of  24,000  copies  was  sold  within  the 
first  few  weeks.  In  this  same  land,  in  dividing  the  terri- 
tory between  the  different  missions,  the  Alethodists  and 
Presbyterians  exchanged  several  thousand  converts,  and 
now,  Korean  Christians  moving  from  a  territory  occupied 
by  one  mission  into  that  occupied  by  another  automati- 
cally transfer  their  membership  to  the  other  denomination. 

2.  The  Science  of  Missions.  Modern  Missionary  lead- 
ers are  doing  much  to  create  an  interest  in  and  to  develop 
the  science  of  missions.    The  Edinburgh  Conference  took 


The  Widening  Sovereignty  of  Christ         15 

a  great  advance  step  when  it  appointed  the  Continuation 
Committee.  This  committee  represents  Christendom  in 
making  a  scientific,  continuous  and  united  study  of  mis- 
sions. The  International  Review,  a  quarterly  magazine, 
is  the  means  the  Committee  has  of  reporting  its  investi- 
gations to  the  Christian  world.  The  committee  has  ap- 
pointed a  number  of  commissions  which  are  at  work  on 
the  various  problems  of  missions.  Their  reports  from 
time  to  time  are  awaited  with  great  interest. 

3.  The  Principles  of  Strategy.  There  never  has  been 
a  time  in  the  history  of  the  missionary  enterprise  when 
the  principles  of  strategy  in  the  promotion  of  missions 
were  so  well  understood  and  applied  as  to-day. 

The  Edinburgh  Missionary  Conference  called  special 
attention  to  these  strategic  principles  and  pointed  out 
how  they  apply  to  the  evangelization  of  the  world.  The 
application  of  these  principles  is  another  evidence  of  the 
fact  that  the  leaders  of  the  Church  are  facing  in  a  thor- 
oughgoing way,  not  a  fragment  of  the  plans  of  Christ, 
but  his  total  program  for  the  world.  Some  of  these 
principles  are  quoted  here: 

(i)  ''Accessibility,  openness,  and  willingness  to  attend 
to  the  gospel  message.  During  the  past  ten  years  the 
people  of  pagan  Africa  have  been  peculiarly  ready  to 
listen  to  the  presentation  of  the  facts  and  arguments  of 
the  Christian  religion. 

(2)  "The  responsiveness  of  the  field.  Korea  and  Man- 
churia are  examples  of  nations  in  which  the  people  of 
every  community  show  readiness  to  yield  to  the  claims 
of  Christ  when  presented  to  them. 

(3)  "The  presence  or  concentration  of  large  numbers 
of  people.    Obviously,  the  Chengtu  plain  of  the  western- 


i6  The  Call  of  the  World 

most  province  of  China,  with  its  population  of  1,700  to 
the  square  mile,  or  the  densely  populated  valleys  of  the 
Ganges  and  lower  Nile,  should  receive  attention  com- 
mensurate with  the  massing  of  the  people. 

(4)  "Previous  neglect.  With  a  gospel  intended  for  all 
mankind  the  policy  of  the  Church  should  be  influenced  by 
the  existence  of  any  totally  unoccupied  field,  like  extensive 
tracts  of  the  Sudan. 

(5)  "Conditions  of  gross  ignorance,  social  degrada- 
tion, and  spiritual  need.  Christ  came  in  a  special  sense  to 
seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost,  and  the  history  of 
the  Christian  Church  has  abundantly  shown  how  the 
blessing  of  God  has  attended  efforts  to  reach  the  most 
unfortunate  and  depressed  classes  and  peoples,  such  as 
the  Pacific  Islanders,  the  outcasts  of  India,  the  lepers, 
and  the  aboriginal  tribes  of  the  East  Indies. 

(6)  "As  has  already  been  made  plain,  the  Church,  while 
recognizing  the  importance  of  advancing  along  lines  of 
largest  immediate  promise,  should,  under  divine  guidance, 
direct  special  attention  to  the  most  difficult  fields  of  the 
non-Christian  world.  In  the  light  of  this  principle,  Mos- 
lem lands  present  an  irresistible  appeal  to  the  Church. 

(7)  "The  prospective  power  and  usefulness  of  a  nation 
as  a  factor  in  the  establishment  of  Christ's  kingdom  in 
the  world,  and  the  probable  weight  of  its  example  as  an 
influence  over  other  nations.  Japan  is  especially  fitted 
to  become,  in  intellectual  and  moral  matters  no  less  than 
in  material  civilization,  the  leader  of  the  Orient.  This 
attaches  transcendent  importance  to  its  attitude  toward 
Christianity. 

(8)  "The  principle  of  urgency  should  as  a  rule  have 
the  right  of  way;  that  is,  if  there  is  to-day  an  opportu- 
nity to  reach  a  people  or  section  which  in  all  probability 


The  Widening  Sovereignty  of  Christ         17 

will  soon  be  gone,  the  Church  should  enter  the  door  at 
once;  for  example,  if  there  is  danger  that  the  field  may 
be  preoccupied  by  other  religions  or  by  influences  adverse 
to  Christianity.  Equatorial  Africa  in  a  most  striking  de- 
gree is  just  now  such  a  battle-ground.  It  is  plain  to 
every  observer  that  unless  Christianity  extends  its  min- 
istry to  tribes  throughout  this  part  of  Africa  the  ground 
will  in  a  short  time  be  occupied  by  Mohammedanism." 

Increase  in  the  Number  of  Missionaries. — Not  only 
does  the  expanding  spirit  of  conquest  express  itself  in 
organizations  to  extend  Christianity,  but  also  in  the  in- 
creasing number  of  lives  that  are  dedicated  to  the  service. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  mis- 
sionary force  was  a  mere  handful.  There  was  not  one 
representative  of  the  churches  of  North  America  any- 
where in  the  non-Christian  world.  The  Buddhist  world 
and  the  Brahmin  world  were  closed,  and  the  millions  of 
the  Mohammedan  world  were  practically  untouched.  The 
vast  regions  of  South  America  and  Africa  were  almost 
unknown.  To-day  there  is  an  army  of  22,000  mission- 
aries, counting  wives,  or  about  16,000  single  missionaries 
and  missionary  families  scattered  over  all  the  continents, 
and  in  almost  every  country  of  the  world. 

In  North  America  the  evidence  of  the  growth  of  con- 
viction regarding  foreign  missions  is  seen  in  the  follow- 
ing record  of  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement.  In  the 
report  made  by  that  Movement  every  four  years  the  fol- 
lowing facts  appear: 

Number  of  Volunteers  Sailed 

1898-1902 780 

1902-1906  1,000 

1906-1910  1,286 


i8 


The  Call  of  the  World 


In  the  year  191 1  the  total  reached  was  410,  indicating  the 
fact  that  the  goal  of  two  thousand  sailed  volunteers  for 

G^ts/or  Fore^n  M'sswnJ. 


26,000.000 

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20.000.000 
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Jhfted  line  re/?rese/e^  ^i/^s  0/  C^ls^e/tdom. 
So&d  &ne  re/irese/zlis fi/^j  qf  i/niled  ^S^es ^Ca/eacii. 

the  quadrennium  is  not  an  impossible  number  to  expect 
to  see  go  out  before  the  next  convention  in  19 14. 

Money  Devoted  to  Missions. — One  hundred  years 
ago  the  total  contributions  to  the  foreign  missionary  en- 


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•94   '9i>   V8   m 

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v^-7 

The  Widening  Sovereignty  of  Christ         19 

terprise  from  all  the  Christians  of  the  world  amounted  to 
about  $100,000  annually.  To-day  the  regular  annual  in- 
come is  at  least  $30,000,000,  or  three  hundred  times  as 
much  per  year  as  one  hundred  years  ago.  Great  build- 
ings are  being  erected  at  a  cost  of  millions  of  additional 
capital  to  house  colleges  and  hospitals  and  printing- 
presses  and  all  other  institutions  necessary  for  the  propa- 
ganda. In  1911  these  special  contributions  from  North 
America  amounted  to  at  least  five  millions  of  dollars. 
In  all  this  vast  enterprise  the  cost  of  administration  at 
the  home  base  averages  only  about  8  per  cent,  of  the 
total  of  the  regular  receipts.  The  cost  of  all  other  big 
business  is  much  higher  than  this.  There  are  perhaps 
some  cases  where  the  efficiency  of  the  mission  Boards 
would  be  increased  if  more  money  was  spent  on  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  home  constituency. 

Translation  of  the  Scriptures. — The  Bible  is  the 
missionary's  book,  and  translated  into  the  language  of 
the  people  is  an  indispensable  aid  to  his  work.  The 
Bible  Societies  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  have  done 
and  are  doing  a  magnificent  and  enduring  work  the  bene- 
fits of  which  all  the  churches  are  reaping.  In  1800  the 
Scriptures  were  translated  into  66  languages ;  to-day  the 
Scriptures  in  part  or  in  whole  are  available  in  more  than 
500  languages  and  dialects.  One  of  the  most  striking 
intellectual  achievements  of  the  world  has  been  made  by 
the  missionaries  in  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures,  to 
say  nothing  of  their  tremendous  contribution  to  science 
and  all  the  branches  of  knowledge  by  the  reduction  of 
languages  to  writing,  by  the  translation  of  text-books, 
and  by  the  publication  of  many  other  books  in  the  ver- 
naculars.    When  it  is  remembered  that  the  Edinburgh 


20  The  Call  of  the  World 

Conference  declared  that  there  are  843  languages  and 
dialects  in  Africa  alone  and  that  only  about  100  of  them 
have  been  reduced  to  writing,  a  glimpse  is  given  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  intellectual  task  remaining  before 
the  battle  is  won.  The  difficulties  have  been  very  great. 
Milne,  a  colaborer  of  Morrison,  has  this  to  say  regard- 
ing the  learning  of  the  Chinese  language : 

'To  learn  Chinese  is  work  for  men  with  bodies  of 
brass,  lungs  of  steel,  heads  of  oak,  hands  of  spring  steel, 
eyes  of  eagles,  hearts  of  apostles,  memories  of  angels, 
and  lives  of  Methuselah!" 

III.     Signs  of  World-wide  Victory 

Progress  by  Centuries. — The  following  table  used 
by  Gulick  in  The  Growth  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  indi- 
cates the  onward  sweep  of  Christianity  throughout  the 
last  two  thousand  years.  Of  this  table  Gulick  says : 
'The  table  does  not  give  the  number  of  professed  Chris- 
tians or  church-members,  but  only  the  number  of  those 
who  may  be  fairly  said  to  have  accepted  the  Christian 
standards  of  moral  life  whether  attempting  and  profes- 
sing to  live  up  to  them  or  not.  The  word  'Christianity' 
is  used  in  its  broadest,  loosest  sense." 

The  first  column  includes  the  period  to  the  end  of  the 
century  named.  The  second  column  gives  the  number  of 
millions  of  Christians  of  all  faiths : 

2nd  century 2  millions 

loth   century 50  millions 

15th  century loo  millions 

i8th  century 200  millions 

19th  century 500  millions 


The  Widening  Sovereignty  of  Christ         21 

A  glance  at  these  figures  reveals  the  following  inspir- 
ing facts. 

The  number  of  Christians  reported  at  the  end  of  ten 
centuries  was  doubled  in  the  next  five  centuries.  The 
total  was  doubled  again  in  the  next  three  hundred  years. 
At  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  number  was 
two  and  a  half  times  as  great  as  at  the  end  of  the  pre- 
vious eighteen  centuries. 

Recent  Victories. — While  the  survey  of  the  prog- 
ress of  the  kingdom  by  centuries  just  given  is  inspiring, 
recent  years  have  witnessed  an  unprecedented  response  to 
the  Christian  appeal. 

Looking  at  America  first  we  discover  that  one  hundred 
years  ago  there  were  364,872  communicant  members  of 
the  Protestant  churches  out  of  a  population  of  5,305,925, 
or  one  in  fourteen.  To-day  one  in  four  of  the  population 
is  identified  with  the  Protestant  church.  These  are  not 
nominal  Christians,  as  in  the  paragraph  above,  but  actual 
Protestant  church  members.  These  figures  make  it  clear 
that  the  forces  of  aggressive  Christianity  in  America 
have  realized  a  tremendous  return  on  their  investment. 
If  we  include  Catholic  and  all  other  religious  bodies  the 
total  communicant  members  reaches  36  millions  in  round 
numbers,  or  about  two  fifths  of  the  total  population. 

One  hundred  years  ago  only  one  in  ten  of  the  college 
students  in  America  was  a  communicant  member  of  the 
Church;  to-day  practically  every  other  college  student 
is  a  member  of  some  church.  It  is  certainly  encouraging 
that  fifty  per  cent,  of  that  small  fraction  of  our  popula- 
tion which  will  furnish  an  enormous  percentage  of  the 
leaders  are  church-members  to-day,  or  five  times  as 
large  a  proportion  as  a  hundred  years  ago. 


22 


The  Call  of  the  World 


The  situation  in  the  nOn-Christian  world  to-day  is 
summed  up  in  the  following  statement  by  J.  Campbell 
White:     *'It  took  about  loo  years  to  gain  the  first  mil- 


WORLD  MISSION  PROGRESS 

GAIN  IN  PROTESTANT  COMMUNICANTS 
SINCE  1800  IN  THE  FOREIGN  FIELD 


1800 


1850 


1880 


I8S2 


1900 


1910 


]  70,000 


2  I  1.000 


8  57, 

000 

1,2  2  5 

,000 

ieOO-1850,  FIRST  50YEAM 

Q     AVERAGE  ANNUAL 

GAIN.    2.800 


1850-1880  NEXT  30YEARS 
P-,  AVERAGE  ANNUAL 
LJ     GAIN,  21.500 


l880-i90Cr.NEXT20Y£ARS 
r-^  AVERAGE  ANNUAL 
LJ    GAIN,  25,600 


j900-l9IO.LASTIOyEARS 
AVERAGE 
ANNUAL 
GAIN,  85,200 


□AVERAGE 
ANNUAL 


I  571  ,0  00~1 


2,223,000 


"OF   THE  INCREASE   OF  HIS    GOVERN- 
MENT THERE    SHALL  BE  NO    END'Msa.ix.? 


lion  converts.  The  second  million  were  added  in  twelve 
years.  They  are  now  being  added  at  the  rate  of  a  mil- 
lion in  six  years." 


The  Widening  Sovereignty  of  Christ         23 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  was 
not  a  single  Protestant  in  Japan,  not  one  in  China,  only 
a  few  in  India,  and  the  great  non-Christian  world  was 
practically  closed  to  the  Protestant  missionary.  Three  of 
the  five  continents  of  the  world  were  inaccessible  and  a 
large  part  of  a  fourth  largely  untouched. 

Protestant  Christian  work  began  in  Japan  in  1858.  In 
1912  there  are  70,000  Protestant  communicants, — among 
them  twelve  members  of  the  Japanese  Parliament.  The 
influence  of  the  Protestant  Christians  in  the  Empire  is 
out  of  all  proportion  to  their  comparatively  small  num- 
bers, because  Christianity  began  with  the  ruling  classes 
in  Japan.  There  are  to-day  in  that  one  country  more 
Protestant  Christians  than  there  were  in  all  the  non- 
Christian  world  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. 

Morrison,  the  pioneer  missionary  to  China,  entered 
that  land  in  1807.  At  the  end  of  thirty-five  years  of  ef- 
fort there  were  only  six  converts;  at  the  end  of  fifty 
years  there  were  less  than  fifty,  but  to-day,  according  to 
the  China  Year  Book,  there  are  195,905  communicant 
members  of  the  Protestant  churches,  and  Dr.  Timothy 
Richard  has  publicly  stated  that  he  thinks  there  are  not 
less  than  two  millions  of  people  in  China  who  accept 
Christ  as  Savior,  although  many  of  these  have  not  as  yet 
united  themselves  with  the  Christian  Church.  One  mis- 
sionary in  North  China  reported  recently  that  he  had 
seen  more  Chinese  accepting  Christ  in  the  last  nine 
months  than  in  the  previous  nineteen  years  of  his  service 
in  China. 

In  Korea,  on  Christmas  Day,  1887,  the  first  seven  men 
were  baptized  in  secret;  now  there  is  a  Christian  com- 


24  The  Call  of  the  World 

munity  of  200,000.  There  has  been  an  average  of  one 
convert  every  hour  of  the  day  and  night  since  Protestant 
missionaries  entered  Korea.  The  Korean  Christians  are 
an  evangelistic,  self-sacrificing,  Bible-studying,  prayer- 
loving  people.  The  training-classes  for  Bible  study  and 
preparation  for  Christian  work  have  been  wonderful  in 
their  attendance  and  power.  One  church  has  developed 
into  five  churches  in  its  short  history.  The  members  of 
a  single  church  in  Seoul  preach  the  gospel  in  over  a 
hundred  villages  in  the  vicinity  of  the  city.  Pingyang 
was  not  entered  until  1895.  ^t  that  time  it  was  said  of 
the  city  that  every  other  house  was  a  wine  shop.  In  the 
short  time  since  the  first  missionary  entered  the  city  such 
progress  has  been  made  that  it  is  now  said  of  Pingyang 
that  every  other  house  has  a  Christian  in  it,  and  that  at 
least  one  sixth  of  the  population  may  be  found  in  the 
regular  church  services  every  Sunday  morning.  The 
great  challenge  presented  by  Korea  is  to  press  the  ad- 
vantage at  this  point  in  the  far-flung  battle  line,  in  con- 
fident expectation  that  Korea  will  be  evangelized  in  this 
generation. 

India  furnishes  many  thrilling  illustrations  of  the  vic- 
torious progress  of  Christianity.  On  a  journey  around 
the  world  two  years  ago,  a  Christian  leader  saw  one 
church  record  in  the  Baptist  mission  among  the  Telugus 
in  which  there  were  the  names  of  19,000  Christian  con- 
verts. Forty  years  ago  there  were  not  more  than  a  half- 
dozen  Christians  in  that  section  of  India. 

Uganda  in  Central  Africa  has  made  great  progress 
since  the  days  of  Stanley's  discovery  of  Livingstone. 
Recently  an  eight-days'  meeting  was  held  in  one  of  the 
stations.     The  attendance  ranged  from  3,500  the  first 


The  Widening  Sovereignty  of  Christ         25 

day  to  more  than  6,000  on  the  last  day.  In  the  five  years 
ending  September,  1907,  there  was  an  average  increase  in 
membership  of  6,000  a  year,  and  in  1909  the  total  in- 
crease reached  8,000. 

Even  the  Near  East  v^hich  has  for  many  years  been 
so  comparatively  unresponsive  to  the  appeal  of  the  gos- 
pel, is  more  ready  than  ever  to  receive  the  gospel  mes- 
sage and  especially  the  missionary  school.  On  a  visit 
to  the  Near  East  in  191 1,  Dr.  C.  H.  Patton,  one  of  the 
Secretaries  of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Missions,  addressed  some  inspiring  audi- 
ences, in  one  place  a  multitude  numbering  three  thou- 
sand. At  Aintab,  the  crowd  was  divided  into  three 
audiences  so  that  all  could  hear.  There  was  a  total  at- 
tendance of  four  thousand.  Among  many  other  encour- 
aging signs  Dr.  Patton  found  forty  sons  of  pashas  and 
members  of  the  Turkish  parliament  in  one  school. 
Where  a  very  few  years  ago  there  were  hatred  and  hos- 
tility, there  is  now  not  only  toleration  but  in  many  places 
a  growing  spirit  of  welcome  to  the  Christian  school  and 
the  Christian  missionary. 

These  examples  are  typical  of  a  world-wide  response 
to  the  gospel  never  known  before.  The  simplest  and 
most  evident  proof  of  the  widening  sovereignty  of  Christ 
in  the  world  is  the  number  of  those  who  are  uniting 
themselves  with  the  Christian  Church.  It  is  an  inspiring 
record,  but  only  the  beginning  of  the  indications  that  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  spreading  over  all  the  earth. 

The  Native  Church. — Further  progress  is  indicated 
when  it  is  remembered  that  there  are  now  about  100,000 
native  workers  in  the  various  non-Christian  lands.  The 
calling  forth  and  training  of  these  workers  is  the  great- 


26  The  Call  of  the  World 

est  and  most  urgent  single  task  on  the  field,  for  the 
chief  hope  of  Christianizing  the  world  is  in  the  multi- 
plication of  the  numbers  and  the  increasing  of  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  native  workers  in  all  non-Christian  coun- 
tries. 

Powerful  native  leaders  are  arising  in  many  lands. 
This  is  a  most  heartening  evidence  of  the  progress  of 
Christianity.  Men  like  the  Hon.  T.  H.  Yun,  the  states- 
man, of  Korea,  Ding  Li  Mai,  the  evangelist,  of  China, 
Bishop  V.  S.  Azariah  of  India,  and  the  late  Bishop 
Honda  of  Japan  are  the  type  of  leaders  who  may  well 
inspire  hope  in  the  success  of  Christianity  in  the  lands 
from  which  they  come.  Native  leaders  are  in  the  fore- 
front of  the  great  social  and  moral  reforms  and  evangel- 
istic campaigns  among  their  people.  The  dependence  of 
China  upon  her  Christian  leaders  in  this  present  hour  of 
great  crisis  has  thrown  a  great  light  upon  the  value  of 
Christian  institutions  and  teachings.  The  sacrificial  giv- 
ing of  the  native  Church  is  a  revelation  of  the  great  depth 
and  sincerity  of  their  Christian  life.  Dr.  Alva  W.  Taylor 
in  his  very  valuable  recent  book,  The  Social  Work  of 
Christian  Missions,  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  in 
China,  while  the  membership  of  the  Protestant  Church 
has  increased  eleven  times  in  thirty  years,  the  rate  of 
native  giving  has  increased  thirty  times. 

Every  land  has  a  contribution  to  make  before  there 
can  be  a  complete  interpretation  of  Christianity.  Chris- 
tendom is  as  yet  only  beginning  to  realize  what  enrich- 
ment of  life  is  to  come  from  Africa  and  the  East ;  from 
Mohammedan  lands  and  the  islands  of  the  seas,  when  the 
living  energies  of  Christ  have  been  brought  to  bear  ade- 
quately upon  their  life. 


The  Widening  Sovereignty  of  Christ         a'j 

Humanitarian  Institutions. — One  hundred  years  ago 
there  was  not  one  hospital  or  trained  physician  in  the 
non-Christian  world;  to-day  there  are  1,653  hospitals; 
and  8,000,000  treatments  in  these  hospitals  were  reported 
in  a  single  recent  year.  The  relief  of  suffering,  the  pre- 
vention and  cure  of  contagious  diseases,  the  successful 
war  against  plague,  asylums  for  the  insane  and  blind,  for 
the  deaf,  homes  for  lepers  and  consumptives,  rescue 
homes,  prison  work,  famine  relief — all  these  are  recent 
forms  of  Christian  service  and  are  rapidly  extending. 

Social  Reconstruction  and  Progress. — Dr.  S.  M. 
Zwemer  has  well  said  "Fifty  years  ago  in  the  study  of 
missions  the  emphasis  was  on  theology,  to-day  it  is  on 
sociology." 

The  expanding  influence  of  Christ  in  the  world  is  not 
only  shown  by  the  statistical  evidences  of  the  growth  of 
the  missionary  enterprise,  but  there  are  also  certain 
large  and  general  aspects  of  the  case  which  must  not  be 
overlooked.  Volumes  have  been  written  on  the  subject 
of  humane  progress,  such  as  Gesta  Christi,  A  History  of 
Humane  Progress,  by  C.  Loring  Brace,  and  Christian 
Missions  and  Social  Progress,  by  J.  S.  Dennis.  But  two 
of  these  humane  ideas  are  enlarged  upon  here. 

I.  The  growth  of  the  idea  of  liberty.  The  freedom 
of  the  masses  is  possible  only  in  those  lands  where  Christ 
is  known.  From  the  days  when  the  influence  of  the 
Christians  put  a  stop  to  the  sacrifices  and  gladiatorial 
combats  in  Rome  to  the  wiping  out  of  human  slavery 
among  all  the  civilized  nations  of  modern  times  is  an 
inspiring  record  of  the  expansion  of  the  Christian  spirit 
of  liberty.  Dr.  Josiah  Strong  says  "At  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century  slaves  were  held  in  Russia,  Prussia, 


28  The  Call  of  the  World 

Austria,  Scotland,  in  British,  French,  and  Spanish  col- 
onies, and  in  North  and  South  America."  To-day  no 
reputable  Christian  nation  tolerates  slaves. 

2.  The  Elevation  of  Womanhood.  Wherever  Christ's 
ideas  of  the  sacredness  and  value  of  w^omanhood  have 
penetrated,  women  have  risen  to  a  place  of  power.  Christ 
found  woman  the  plaything  and  drudge  of  man  or  worse 
and  has  lifted  her  up  to  be  a  queen  in  the  home  and  a 
powerful  influence  in  society.  To  a  gentleman  who  asked 
a  woman  in  Turkey  what  her  life  was  like  she  replied, 
''Our  life  is  hell."  Let  her  answer  stand  for  the  life  of 
millions  upon  millions  of  women  and  girls  where  the 
purity  and  love  of  Christ  are  unknown. 

In  the  introduction  to  Gesta  Christi,  A  History  of  Hu- 
mane Progress  by  Brace,  the  following  summary  is 
given : 

'There  are  certain  practises,  principles,  and  ideals — 
now  the  richest  inheritance  of  the  race — that  have  been 
either  implanted  or  stimulated  or  supported  by  Chris- 
tianity. 

"They  are  such  as  these :  regard  for  the  personality  of 
the  weakest  and  poorest;  respect  for  women;  the  abso- 
lute duty  of  each  member  of  the  fortunate  classes  to 
raise  up  the  unfortunate;  humanity  to  the  child,  the 
prisoner,  the  stranger,  the  needy,  and  even  the  brute; 
unceasing  opposition  to  all  forms  of  cruelty,  oppression, 
and  slavery ;  the  duty  of  personal  purity  and  the  sacred- 
ness of  marriage ;  the  necessity  of  temperance ;  the  obli- 
gation of  a  more  equitable  division  of  the  profits  of 
labor,  and  of  greater  cooperation  between  employers  and 
employed;  the  right  of  every  human  being  to  have  the 
utmost  opportunity  of  developing  his  faculties,  and  of 


The  Widening  Sovereignty  of  Christ         29 

all  persons  to  enjoy  equal  political  and  social  privileges; 
the  principle  that  the  injury  of  one  nation  is  the  injury 
of  all,  and  the  expediency  and  duty  of  unrestricted  trade 
and  intercourse  between  all  countries;  and  finally  and 
principally,  a  profound  opposition  to  war,  a  determina- 
tion to  limit  its  evils  when  existing,  and  to  prevent  its 
arising  by  means  of  international  arbitration. 

'Ideals,  principles,  and  practises  such  as  these  are 
among  the  best  achievements  of  history." 

The  Conclusion  of  the  Whole  Matter. — Under  the 
weight  of  this  mass  of  proof  we  may  accept  the  interpre- 
tation of  history  given  in  Isaiah  xiv.  26-27.  He  is  an- 
swering that  question  which  has  challenged  thinkers  in 
all  ages.  What  is  the  vocation  of  the  nations?  Isaiah 
concludes  that  all  nations  have  a  place  in  God's  purpose 
and  that  all  peoples  contribute  to  his  plan. 

'This  is  the  purpose  that  is  purposed  upon  the  whole 
earth ;  and  this  is  the  hand  that  is  stretched  out  upon  all 
the  nations.  For  Jehovah  of  hosts  hath  purposed,  and 
who  shall  annul  it  ?  and  his  hand  is  stretched  out  and  who 
shall  turn  it  back?" 

No  man  who  is  willing  to  accept  the  facts  which  have 
been  stated  can  escape  the  conviction  that  Christ  is  pos- 
sessing the  world  in  an  unmistakable  way.  Although 
there  are  still  great  battles  to  be  fought  out,  and  problems 
to  be  solved, — greater  probably  than  men  have  ever 
grappled  with  in  the  history  of  the  world, — the  final  issue 
cannot  be  in  doubt.  In  the  midst  of  all  the  disturbing 
forces,  when  many  leaders  are  bewildered  by  the  swiftly 
moving  scenes  incident  to  the  transformation  of  great 
and  ancient  civilizations,  at  a  time  when  the  cries  of 
race  and  clan  are  deafening  and  when  there  is  a  struggle 


30  The  Call  of  the  World 

between  age-long  forces  on  a  gigantic  scale  never  before 
witnessed,  serene  and  confident  of  the  outcome  moves 
our  Christ. 

As  Mr.  Robert  E.  Speer  puts  it,  ''Christianity  is  mov- 
ing out  over  the  earth  with  ever-enlarging  agencies,  with 
ever-increasing  success,  and  with  open  and  undiscour- 
aged  purpose  to  win  the  world." 

With  the  change  of  a  single  phrase  we  may  join  in  the 
song  of  Christ's  triumph  which  Longfellow  left  as  an 
inspiring  heritage  to  the  world. 

"And  him  evermore  I  behold 
Walking  in  the  midst  of  the  world, 
Through   the   cornfield's   waving  gold, 
In  hamlet,  in  wood,  and  in  wold, 
By  the  shores  of  the  beautiful  sea. 
He   toucheth   the   sightless   eyes; 
Before  him  the  demons  flee; 
To  the  dead  he  saith:  Arise! 
To  the  living:  Follow  me! 
And  that  voice  still  soundeth  on. 
From  the  centuries  that  are  gone, 
To  the  centuries  that  shall  be." 


The  Widening  Sovereignty  of  Christ         31 

FOR  ADDITIONAL   READING  AND   FOR   REFERENCE 

Edinburgh  Conference  Report  (9  volumes).  Missionary- 
Education  Movement,  156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York. 
$5.00. 

World  Atlas  of  Christian  Missions.  Student  Volunteer 
Movement,  125  East  27th  Street,  New  York.  $4.00. 

The  Statesmen's  Year  Book,  1912.  Macmillan  Company, 
64  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York.     $3.40. 

Taylor,  Alva  W.  The  Social  Work  of  Christian  Missions. 
The  Foreign  Christian  Missionary  Society,  Cincinnati. 
$0.50. 

Gulick,  Sidney  L.  The  Growth  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
Fleming  H.  Revell  Co.,  158  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York. 
$1.00. 

Brace,  Charles  Loring.  Gesta  Christ,  A  History  of  Hu- 
mane Progress.  George  H.  Doran,  25  West  32nd 
Street,  New  York.     $1.00. 

Ross,  E.  A.  The  Changing  Chinese.  The  Century  Com- 
pany, 33  East  17th  Street,  New  York.    $2.40. 

Dennis,  James  S.  Christian  Missions  and  Social  Prog- 
ress (3  volumes).  Fleming  H.  Revell  Co.,  158  Fifth 
Avenue,  New  York.    $6.25. 

Dennis,  James  S.  Commerce  and  Missions  (A  Pam- 
phlet). Laymen's  Missionary  Movement,  i  Madison 
Avenue,  New  York.    5  cents. 

Goucher,  John  F.  Growth  of  the  Missionary  Concept. 
Eaton  &  Mains,  150  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York.    $0.75. 


CHAPTER    II 
THE   CHALLENGE    OF    A    GREAT    TASK 

One  of  the  best  tests  of  the  measure  of  a  man  is  in  his 
relation  to  great  forces  and  opportunities  and  tasks.  A 
small  man  will  either  be  unconscious  of  their  presence 
and  significance,  or  will  be  overwhelmed  by  them,  and 
therefore  inactive  or  inefficient.  On  the  other  hand  a 
man  who  is  really  alive  will  rejoice  that  it  is  given  to 
him  to  relate  himself  to  life's  greatest  forces  and  oppor- 
tunities and  tasks. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  conceive  of  any  combination 
of  human  and  divine  energies,  of  golden  opportunities 
and  inspiring  tasks,  comparable  with  those  centering  in 
the  world-wide  propagation  of  Christianity.  In  our  day 
more  men  are  undertaking  with  relentless  courage  the 
whole  program  of  Christ  than  ever  before,  notwithstand- 
ing its  immensity,  its  bewildering  complexity,  and  its  tax- 
ing difficulty.  The  first  long  step  toward  a  solution  of 
the  missionary  problem  is  this  willingness  to  face  the 
total  issues  involved  without  reserve  and  without  fear. 

The  following  pages  present  a  condensed  and  swift 
survey  of  the  unfinished  task  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 
The  size  of  the  task  is  sketched  in  its  bold  outlines.  In 
this  chapter  is  heard  the  cry  that  is  flung  out  across  the 
world  to  every  Christian  man.  It  is  a  cry  of  neglect  and 
need,  of  urgency  and  crisis,  the  united  voice  of  multi- 

33 


34  The  Call  of  the  World 

tudes  among  whom  the  forces  of  the  new  age  are  battling 
for  mastery.  The  Hmits  of  the  chapter  make  it  impos- 
sible to  discuss  many  important  features  of  the  mission- 
ary task,  such  as  the  social  evils  of  the  non-Christian 
world,  the  inadequacy  of  the  vast  religious  systems  to 
meet  the  deepest  needs  of  mankind,  the  strength  of  the 
customs  of  centuries,  and  many  more.  The  reader  is 
referred  to  the  books  listed  at  the  close  of  this  chapter 
for  a  discussion  of  these  elements  of  the  problems.  These 
pages  will  give  but  a  glimpse  of  the  task  but  enough 
surely  to  strike  a  high  note  of  summons  to  every  man  to 
whom  Christ  is  indispensable  to  make  Christ  known  to 
all  other  men  in  the  world  to  whom  he  is  also  indispen- 
sable. 

The  Unity  of  the  Race. — In  this  survey  it  will  be 
of  great  value  to  remember  that  God  "made  of  one 
every  nation  of  men"  (Acts  xvii.  26).  The  unity  of  the 
race  is  a  great  and  solemnizing  truth.  Men  can  not  be 
classified  by  the  color  of  their  skin  or  their  language. 
It  is  impossible  for  a  scientist  to  tell  the  difference  be- 
tween the  blood  of  an  Arab,  a  Chinese,  and  an  English- 
man. Sin  is  not  a  heathen  charactciistic,  it  is  a  human 
characteristic.  If  the  gospel  had  gone  eastward  instead 
of  westward  civilization  would  have  traveled  that  way. 
As  we  speak  about  the  backward  races  let  us  remember 
that  the  chief  difference  between  them  and  us  is  that  we 
have  Christ  and  they  have  him  not. 

Explanation  of  Terms. — It  is  essential  that  the 
meaning  of  three  terms  which  are  current  in  the  litera- 
ture and  discussion  of  missions  be  understood  before  we 
proceed.  These  terms  are,  the  evangelization  of  the 
world,  the  naturalization  of  Christianity,  and  the  Chris- 


The  Challenge  of  a  Great  Task  35 

tiankation  of  the  world.  What  do  these  terms  mean, 
and  whose  task  is  indicated  by  each  ? 

The  Evangelization  of  the  World. — This  phrase 
means  the  giving  of  every  person  in  the  world  an  ade- 
quate opportunity  to  know  and  receive  Jesus  Christ. 
This  is  the  present  and  urgent  task  of  all  Christians.  It 
is  a  universal  obligation  organic  in  the  gospel.  By  this 
we  do  not  mean  simply  giving  the  message  of  Christ 
once  in  the  hearing  of  all  men.  That  is  not  adequate. 
There  must  be  repeated  instruction  in  the  gospel,  until 
the  need  of  Christ  is  made  clear  and  influence  brought 
to  bear  upon  the  will  so  that  an  intelligent  decision  to  ac- 
cept and  follow  Christ  is  made  possible.  Many  will  re- 
ject the  message,  no  doubt,  but  the  responsibility  of  Chris- 
tians to  any  man  is  not  discharged  until  that  man  has 
had  opportunity  to  know  and  receive  Jesus  Christ. 
Wherever  there  are  belated  countries  and  races,  or  re- 
ligions that  do  not  meet  the  deepest  needs  of  mankind, 
wherever  there  is  no  adequate  opportunity  to  enjoy  the 
deliverance  from  sin,  the  freedom,  the  intelligence,  the 
purity,  the  safety,  the  justice  and  equality,  the  rewards 
of  honest  labor,  which  the  gospel  of  Christ  brings,  it  is 
the  duty  of  those  who  possess  all  these  to  pass  them  on 
to  others. 

The  Naturalization  of  Christianity. — By  the  nat- 
uralization of  Christianity  in  a  country  is  meant  the  per- 
manent planting  of  the  Christian  Church  and  Christian 
institutions  in  that  land.  When  a  foreigner  becomes  a 
naturahzed  American  he  must  meet  certain  educational 
and  financial  requirements  and  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  United  States,  in  return  for  which  he  is  guaranteed 
the  privileges  and  rights  of  citizenship.     The  process  of 


36  The  Call  of  the  World 

Americanization  is  not  completed  by  this  act  of  naturali- 
zation ;  it  is  only  well  begun.  Many  years  are  required  to 
thoroughly  assimilate  the  spirit  of  our  institutions  and 
life.  Naturalization  is  a  first  not  a  final  process,  Ameri- 
canization is  the  goal. 

Christianity  may  be  said  to  be  naturalized  in  a  land 
when  the  native  Church  has  reached  the  point  where  it 
is  capable  of  governing  and  supporting  itself  and  of  com- 
pleting the  work  of  evangelizing  the  country.  There- 
fore the  naturalization  of  Christianity  is  the  joint  task  of 
the  foreign  missionary  and  the  native  Christian  Church. 
In  the  process  the  foreign  missionary  must  decrease,  as 
the  native  Church  increases. 

The  Christianization  of  the  World. — This  involves 
the  application  of  the  principles  of  the  gospel  to  the  total 
life  of  mankind.  In  a  strict  sense  this  is  not  yet  true  in 
any  country.  There  are  of  course  many  countries  where 
the  evangelization  of  the  people  is  being  vigorously  car- 
ried out  and  the  naturalization  of  Christianity  is  without 
question ;  but  the  complete  redemption  of  society  is  not 
yet  a  fact.  This  final  stage  in  the  missionary  enterprise 
is  the  task  of  the  native  Church  in  each  land.  There  will 
still  be  fellowship  with  the  Church  in  all  lands  and  inter- 
changes of  ideas  and  service.  There  will  no  doubt  be 
greater  unity  than  ever,  but  the  final  responsibility  rests 
with  the  naturalized  Church  in  each  land  to  complete  the 
Christianizing  task. 

While  the  definitions  given  must  not  be  interpreted  too 
strictly,  since  the  processes  overlap  and  there  is  no  abso- 
lutely sharp  line  of  distinction  between  them,  in  general 
it  is  true  that  it  is  the  duty  of  each  generation  of  Chris- 
tians to  evangelize  its  own  generation;  it  is  the  joint 


The  Challenge  of  a  Great  Task  37 

duty  of  Christendom  and  the  native  Church  to  naturalize 
Christianity  in  every  land  and  among  all  races,  and  it  is 
the  task  of  the  native  Church  in  each  land  to  press  with 
all  possible  urgency  the  Christianization  of  the  country. 
Evangelization  and  naturalization  are  the  immediate  aim : 
Christianization  the  final  aim  of  the  Church  of  Christ 
in  the  world. 

I.    America's  Home  Problem 

A  primary  missionary  obligation  is  to  purify  the  foun- 
tains out  of  which  the  missionary  streams  flow.  Unless 
there  is  a  genuine  Christian  civilization  in  America  the 
impact  of  America  on  the  non-Christian  world  will  not 
be  life-giving.  As  Dr.  Love  well  says,  in  The  Mission 
of  Our  Nation: 

"The  man  who  minimizes  the  importance  of  any  de- 
partment of  missions  leaves  himself  without  ground  for 
the  strongest  appeal  for  any  department  of  missions. 

"We  shall  never  be  able  to  develop  a  great  conscience 
concerning  any  one  department  of  our  missionary  work, 
except  we  develop  a  great  conscience  concerning  it  all. 

"Though  he  may  not  think  so  himself,  a  man  whose 
appeal  is  wholly  for  foreign  missions  may  be  as  truly 
provincial  as  one  who  is  all  for  home  missions,  for  his 
field  does  not  comprehend  the  whole  world." 

No  man  who  has  candidly  studied  the  home  problems 
in  Canada  with  all  their  significance  to  the  future  of  the 
Dominion,  and  the  splendid  way  in  which  the  Canadian 
leaders  are  seeking  to  solve  those  problems  can  talk 
lightly  of  the  task  there.  The  total  immigration  to 
Canada  in  1910-11  was  the  largest  in  its  history, — 311,- 
084.    While  the  large  majority  were  from  England  and 


38  The  Call  of  the  World 

the  United  States,  the  total  included  representatives  of 
64  nationalities.  The  Bible  has  been  called  for  in  no 
languages  in  the  Dominion.  There  are  about  900,000 
Protestant  Church  members  out  of  a  total  population 
of  7,200,000.  The  Catholic  Church  claims  2,538,374 
members.  There  are  about  3,000,000  French  Canadians. 
Montreal  has  70,000  foreigners ;  Winnipeg,  50,000. 
There  are  12,000  Orientals  in  Vancouver.  The  great 
v^estern  provinces  have  all  the  problems  of  the  frontier. 

Looking  at  the  situation  in  the  United  States  we  are 
confronted  with  the  fact  that  there  are  34,796,077  people 
over  ten  years  of  age  who  are  outside  the  membership 
of  all  the  churches.  That  in  itself  constitutes  an  enor- 
mous spiritual  opportunity  and  responsibility.  Tens  of 
thousands  of  these  people  are  unreached  because  the 
Church  has  not  seriously  attempted  to  reach  them.  Re- 
cent investigations  have  shown  that  thousands  of  our 
country  churches  are  entirely  abandoned,  and  that  in 
large  rural  sections  the  rising  generation  is  practically 
deprived  of  all  religious  training.  Until  America  solves 
its  rural  and  city  church  problems,  it  will  be  greatly 
handicapped  in  its  world-wide  missionary  operations. 

There  are  certain  neglected  and  overlooked  groups 
in  American  life,  such  as  the  Mountaineers  of  the  South. 
Concerning  these  sturdy  Southerners,  who  are  serving  an 
altogether  too  long  apprenticeship,  and  who  have  re- 
mained in  isolation  while  modern  progress  has  rushed  by 
them,  W.  G.  Frost  says,  "I  expect  to  see  the  mountain  re- 
gions of  the  South  as  peculiar  a  joy  and  glory  to  America 
as  old  Scotland  is  to  Great  Britain." 

The  Mormon  menace  is  appalling.  Every  citizen  should 
read  Bruce  Kinney's  Mormonisni,  the  Islam  of  America, 


The  Challenge  of  a  Great  Task  39 

and  then  do  his  part  to  eradicate  this  evil  from  the  land. 

Several  millions  of  illiterate  Negroes  sorely  need  edu- 
cation and  Christianity  if  the  civilization  of  the  country 
is  to  be  safe.  Progress  in  the  solution  of  these  problems 
has  been  great,  and  the  Churches  are  addressing  them- 
selves to  the  task  with  growing  conviction  and  power. 

The  loudest  call  to  missionary  devotion  in  the  United 
States  is  presented  by  the  unprecedented  tides  of  immi- 
gration from  all  corners  of  the  globe.  While  Canada  is 
feeling  this  pressure  in  an  unusual  degree,  the  magni- 
tude of  the  problem  in  the  United  States  is  much  greater, 
not  only  because  of  the  great  numbers  but  also  because 
of  the  character  of  the  immigration.  The  sheer  size  of 
the  task  may  be  made  concrete  by  comparing  the  num- 
bers of  people  who  have  come  to  the  United  States  in 
the  last  few  years  with  some  of  the  other  great  migra- 
tions of  history. 

The  leading  of  the  children  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt  was 
one  of  the  outstanding  movements  of  a  great  population 
in  ancient  history.  According  to  the  census  figures  in 
Numbers  i-46,  there  were  603,550  men  of  twenty  years 
of  age  and  upwards.  Some  were  heads  of  families  but 
many  of  these  were  single  men,  so  that,  if  we  multiply 
the  number  given  in  the  Bible  by  five,  it  will  probably 
give  the  approximate  number  of  the  entire  population,  or 
3,017,750.  In  the  last  ten  years  nearly  three  times  as 
many  people  have  come  to  America  as  the  number  Moses 
led  out  of  Egypt.  Furthermore,  immigrants  to  America 
are  not  all  of  one  race  as  in  the  case  of  Israel,  but  repre- 
sent a  Babel  of  races  and  languages. 

The  hordes  of  barbarians  which  overwhelmed  Rome 
have  left  a  mark  on  Europe  that  can  never  be  forgotten. 


40 


The  Call  of  the  World 


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The  Challenge  of  a  Great  Task  41 

The  size  and  vigor  of  the  movement  made  a  profound  im- 
pression which  history  cannot  outgrow,  and  yet  Genseric, 
one  of  the  greatest  of  theii;^ leaders,  never  had  more  than 
80,000  warriors  in  his  palmiest  days. 

There  have  been  great  successive  waves  of  immigra- 
tion into  China  and  India  from  the  plains  and  the  moun- 
tains of  the  north  and  east,  but  so  far  as  we  have  knowl- 
edge of  the  numbers  they  dwindle  into  comparative  in- 
significance when  measured  by  this  greatest  of  all  in- 
vasions. 

The  numbers  involved  in  the  Norman  Conquest  of 
England  would  hardly  make  a  ripple  on  the  sea  of  races 
and  populations  crowding  to  American  shores. 

The  Crusades  stand  out  as  epoch-making  and  unparal- 
leled up  to  that  time  in  the  number  of  nations  disturbed. 
They  covered  a  period  of  more  than  a  century  and  a 
half  and  involved  several  millions  of  people,  but  more 
men,  women,  and  children  from  other  lands  have  come 
to  the  United  States  and  Canada  in  the  last  six  years 
than  swept  across  the  face  of  Europe  in  a  century  and  a 
half  in  the  Crusades. 

To  assimilate  and  Christianize  these  multitudes  is  one 
of  the  supreme  tests  of  the  reality  of  our  faith  and  the 
vitality  of  our  national  life. 

The  glory  of  immigration  is  fourfold : 

I.  God  has  written  much  history  in  terms  of  migra- 
tory peoples.  It  is  the  impatient,  unsatisfied,  vigorous 
peoples  which  have  made  the  history  of  the  world.  If 
the  meaning  of  the  past  is  correctly  interpreted,  then  the 
blending  of  these  races  together  on  a  Christian  basis  into 
one  united  people  is  America's  superlative  opportunity 
to  make  history. 


'42  The  Call  of  the  World 

2.  Immigration  is  compelling  America  to  study  the 
languages,  the  history,  the  achievements,  the  religions, 
and  the  characteristics  of  these  multitudes  of  people. 
Such  study  is  imperative  in  order  that  America  may  ade- 
quately bear  to  the  incoming  millions  the  deepest  mes- 
sage of  her  religion  and  her  western  institutions.  This 
fact  in  itself  furnishes  an  intellectual  and  moral  task  of 
transcendent  importance.  On  this  continent  the  modern 
gift  of  tongues  must  be  given  if  America  fails  not  her 
Christ. 

3.  Immigration  is  leading  millions  to  study  the  Eng- 
lish tongue.  This  is  of  great  importance  if  the  multi- 
tudes of  future  Americans  are  to  understand  and  ap- 
propriate the  principles  of  democracy  and  Protestantism 
enshrined  in  English  literature.  The  German  and  Scan- 
dinavian and  other  tongues  v^^ill  contribute  to  America 
the  best  they  possess,  while  at  the  same  time  they  are 
themselves  greatly  enriched. 

4.  The  mingling  races  are  challenging  America  to 
■demonstrate  the  truth  of  those  principles  of  freedom  and 
democracy  of  zvhich  such  proud  boast  has  been  made  in 
days  gone  by.  The  principles  of  democracy  can  scarcely 
be  thoroughly  and  finally  tested  among  people  who  are 
of  the  same  race  and  have  a  common  speech  and  who 
have  a  more  or  less  common  purpose.  Democracy  can  be 
adequately  tested  only  amid  the  complexities  of  race  and 
clan,  of  diverse  speech  and  history.  These  principles  of 
democracy  have  never  been  literally  applied  in  any  large 
way  yet,  but  one  of  God's  greatest  challenges  to  the  man- 
hood of  the  United  States  and  Canada  to-day  is  that 
literal  application  of  the  principles  of  democracy  shall  be 
made  to  the  whole  population  gathered  within  their  vast 


The  Challenge  of  a  Great  Task 


43 


domains.    Here  is  a  call  for  statesmanship  and  spiritual 
passion  worthy  of  the  finest  life  America  has  produced. 


SIZE  OF  PARISHES  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD 

Figures  Give  the  Number  of  l^eopleto  Each 
Protestant  Minister 

o    UNITED  STATES,  594 
O  AFRICA,   82,152 
Q  KOREA,  123.711 

JAPAN.  I  72,538 

SOUTH  AMERICA,  1 95.835 

INDIA, 231  ,448 

CHINESE  EMPIRE,476,46E 


II.     Mexico  and  Central  America 

These  lands  lying  to  the  South  are  America's  nearest 
foreign  missionary  field. 

In  each  case  in  which  the  number  of  missionaries  is 
mentioned  in  this  volume,  unless  otherwise  stated,  it  may 


44  The  Call  of  the  World 

be  understood  to  include  all  missionaries,  both  men  and 
women,  except  wives  of  missionaries.  This  is  thought 
to  be  fair,  not  because  missionaries'  wives  are  not  as  de- 
voted as  their  husbands  or  other  workers,  but  because  it 
is  not  to  be  expected  that  a  woman  with  household  cares 
should  be  responsible  for  the  same  amount  of  direct  Chris- 
tian work  that  is  expected  of  other  workers  on  the  field. 
In  other  words,  the  family  or  the  single  worker  is  con- 
sidered the  unit. 

The  people  in  Mexico  are  nominally  Roman  Catholic, 
the  census  returns  showing  thirteen  and  a  half  millions 
of  that  faith.  Conditions  are  difficult  for  Protestant 
missions.  The  population  of  Mexico  is  more  than  fifteen 
millions.  Among  these  millions  there  are  206  represen- 
tatives of  Protestant  Christianity.  In  1895  more  than  ten 
millions  in  Mexico  could  neither  read  nor  write,  and 
while  conditions  have  improved  somewhat  since  then,  it 
is  safe  to  say  that  seven  out  of  every  ten  of  the  popula- 
tion are  illiterate.  In  Central  America,  including 
Panama,  there  are  96  missionaries. 

These  simple  facts  will  illustrate  the  truth  that  there 
are  still  parts  of  the  North  American  continent  inade- 
quately cultivated  by  the  Protestant  churches. 

III.     South  America 

The  South  American  lands  are  nominally  Roman 
Catholic.  They  know  considerable  of  the  phraseology  of 
Christianity,  but  its  vital  truth  has  not  been  largely  real- 
ized. Here  are  seven  million  square  miles  of  opportunity 
which  call  loudly  for  the  Christian  application  of  the 
Monroe  doctrine.  While  the  majority  of  the  people  are 
of  European  blood   (if  we  do  not  count  the  unknown 


The  Challenge  of  a  Great  Task  45 

numbers  of  millions  of  Indians),  every  principle  of  jus- 
tice indicates  North  America's  obligation  to  hasten  the 
redemption  of  South  America.  These  lands  followed  the 
example  of  the  United  States  in  adopting  the  republic 
as  their  ideal  of  government.  They  have  not  hitherto 
enjoyed  our  religious  freedom  along  with  our  republican 
form  of  government.  Free  government  cannot  be  fully 
and  permanently  enjoyed  by  any  people  without  actual 
religious  liberty.  Freedom  of  conscience  produces  the 
intelligence  and  virtue  essential  to  a  democracy.  The 
South  American  lands  have  lacked  such  freedom.  This 
in  itself  constitutes  a  real  challenge  to  the  faith  of  North 
American  Christians. 

A  brief  glimpse  of  two  or  three  of  the  lands  will  indi- 
cate the  character  of  the  problem  a  little  more  clearly. 

Brazil,  the  greatest  of  the  South  American  lands,  about 
2,700  miles  in  extent  from  east  to  west  and  fully  the 
same  from  north  to  south,  with  an  area  nearly  as  great 
as  the  entire  continent  of  Europe,  has,  according  to  the 
Statesman's  Year  Book,  a  population  of  more  than 
twenty-one  millions  or  nearly  one  half  of  the  population 
of  the  continent.  Its  great  forests  and  mineral  wealth 
are  but  little  used.  According  to  the  World  'Atlas  of 
Christian  Missions,  there  is  but  one  Protestant  mission 
station  near  the  mouth  of  the  Amazon  River  and  not  a 
single  missionary  in  all  the  vast  territory  through  which 
that  river  and  most  of  its  tributaries  flow.  Algot  Lange, 
who  has  spent  many  months  exploring  the  Amazon  Basin, 
says  there  are  373  tribes  speaking  a  variety  of  languages 
in  the  Amazon  territory.  These  are  practically  all  un- 
reached by  the  gospel.  The  mission  stations  are  scat- 
tered along  the  coast  with  very  few  in  the  interior.    The 


46  The  Call  of  the  World 

majority  of  the  missionaries  are  within  three  or  four 
hundred  miles  of  Rio  Janeiro.  Eighty-five  per  cent,  of 
the  population  is  reported  illiterate. 

Bolivia,  which  is  fourteen  times  as  large  as  the  State 
of  New  York,  has  only  sixteen  workers,  counting  wives, 
so  that  each  worker  in  Bolivia  has  a  parish  larger  than 
the  entire  State  of  Pennsylvania.  The  same  proportion 
would  give  five  workers  to  the  Province  of  Quebec. 
Since  these  words  were  written  however  a  party  of  three 
new  missionaries  sailed  from  New  York  to  enter  this 
field. 

The  Argentine  Republic  is  the  most  advanced  and 
prosperous  country  of  South  America.  It  has,  according 
to  figures  given  by  Mr.  Robert  E.  Speer  at  the  Rochester 
Student  Volunteer  Convention,  a  per  capita  export  three 
and  a  half  times  as  great  as  the  United  States,  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  times  as  great  as  the  Chinese  Empire 
and  the  total  exports  were  nearly  equal  to  those  of  the 
entire  continent  of  Africa.  The  Argentine  Republic  has 
but  one  worker  to  every  8,737  square  miles.  The 
illiteracy  of  this,  the  most  enlightened  land  of  South 
America,  is  50  per  cent,  of  the  population.  Thus  it  is 
seen  that  the  brightest  spot  in  South  America  has  appall- 
ing need  of  Protestant  Christianity. 

Looking  at  the  problem  in  the  large,  there  is  in  South 
America  a  population  of  approximately  49,000,000.  In 
the  whole  continent  there  are  only  881  Protestant  mis- 
sionaries. If  we  omit  the  wives  of  missionaries  from  the 
calculations  this  gives  to  each  worker  a  population  of  83,- 
050  and  a  field  of  12,450  square  miles,  or  more  than  nine 
times  the  size  of  Rhode  Island. 

New  York  State  has  42,558  primary  and  high  school 


The  Challenge  of  a  Great  Task  47 

teachers.  If  we  omit  the  teachers  in  the  two  lands 
farthest  north  in  South  America ;  namely,  Venezuela  and 
Colombia,  New  York  has  as  many  teachers  as  all  of  the 
South  American  continent. 

The  illiteracy  of  the  United  States,  even  including  all 
those  who  cannot  read  or  write  among  immigrants  and 
Negroes,  is  only  10.7  per  cent.,  while  the  lowest  per  cent, 
of  illiteracy  in  any  country  in  South  America  is  50  and 
the  highest  nearly  90. 

It  would  perhaps  be  a  fair  estimate  to  say  that  at  least 
three  out  of  four  people  in  the  South  American  lands  live 
where  they  will  probably  not  hear  the  message  of  Christ 
from  Protestant  missionaries  in  any  adequate  way  in  this 
generation  unless  the  Church  greatly  multiplies  its  mis- 
sionary agencies  in  South  America. 

IV.     Africa 

There  are  three  Africas,  each  with  its  difficult 
problems. 

Christian  Africa  is  at  the  southern  end  of  the  conti- 
nent where  live  nearly  five  and  one-half  million  people. 
This  is  more  nearly  evangelized  than  any  other  portion 
of  the  continent.  Some  notable  Christian  leaders  have 
been  developed  in  South  Africa,  of  whom  the  Rev.  An- 
drew Murray  is  one  of  the  most  widely  known.  In 
Abyssinia  is  the  old  Coptic  Church  which  is  without 
much  real  Christian  life. 

Pagan  Africa  comprises  the  greatest  solid  mass  of 
paganism  on  the  earth. 

Mohammedan  Africa  numbers  at  least  forty  millions 
of  population  spread  over  the  vast  regions  from  the 
Equator  to  the  Mediterranean  Sea.    With  the  exception 


48  The  Call  of  the  World 

of  Abyssinia,  Liberia  and  Sierra  Leone,  practically  the 
whole  of  North  Africa  is  under  the  sway  of  the  false 
prophet  and  even  in  the  lands  mentioned  the  pressure  of 
Mohammedan  invasion  is  rapidly  growing  more  severe. 

The  intellectual  task  on  this  educational  frontier  of  the 
world  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  there  are  843  lan- 
guages and  dialects  on  the  continent.  The  Edinburgh 
Conference  estimated  that  in  Pagan  and  Mohammedan 
Africa  combined  there  are  a  hundred  millions  of  people 
without  a  written  language  or  even  an  alphabet  of  their 
own. 

On  the  whole  continent  of  Africa  there  are  3,244  mis- 
sionaries, each  with  a  parish  of  3,614  square  miles  and 
46,239  people.  There  is  only  a  handful  of  mission- 
aries to  guard  3,000  miles  of  Mediterranean  coast  from 
Egypt  to  Gibraltar.  From  Khartum  to  Uganda,  along 
the  rich  Nile  valley,  a  distance  of  1,000  miles,  there 
are  about  a  dozen  missionaries. 

As  far  as  the  proportion  of  missionaries  to  population 
is  concerned,  Africa  is  much  better  supplied  than  Asia, 
yet  in  Africa  there  are  five  great  blocks  of  territory 
which  are  unoccupied  and  other  areas  with  missionaries 
only  around  the  fringes  or  reaching  only  a  small  fraction 
of  the  people.  These  areas  are  irregular  in  shape  and 
the  lines  bounding  them  have  been  drawn  so  as  to  ex- 
clude all  mission  stations.  Some  of  the  people  in  them 
no  doubt  are  hearing  the  gospel,  but  there  are  no  resi- 
dent missionaries  in  any  of  them,  according  to  the  maps 
of  the  World  Atlas  of  Christian  Missions. 
[  The  smallest  of  these  five  unoccupied  areas  is  in  Por- 
tuguese and  German  East  Africa.  It  is  four  times  the 
size  of  the  State  of  New  York. 


The  Challenge  of  a  Great  Task  49 

A  second  near  the  west  coast,  south  of  the  equator,  has 
three  times  the  extent  of  New  England. 

The  third  near  the  west  coast,  south  of  the  equator, 
would  make  eight  States  as  large  as  Iowa.  In  Iowa 
there  are  at  least  4,000  ordained  ministers,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  other  Christian  workers,  but  in  this  block  of  terri- 
tory, eight  times  as  large  as  Iowa,  there  is  not  a  single 
ordained  missionary. 

Another  region,  some  distance  north  of  the  one  just 
mentioned,  without  missionaries,  is  1,500  miles  long  and 
500  miles  wide. 

Last  of  all,  if  we  omit  the  mission  stations  on  the 
Nile  and  a  few  scattered  workers  around  the  fringes, 
there  is  in  the  upper  half  of  the  continent  a  block  of 
territory  nearly  as  large  as  the  United  States  but  with  a 
scattered  population  estimated  at  fifteen  millions,  without 
resident  missionaries.  Starting  from  the  Nile  River,  1,000 
miles  from  its  mouth,  a  traveler  could  go  directly  west- 
ward through  the  heart  of  the  continent  nearly  three 
thousand  miles  before  reaching  the  next  mission  station 
on  the  west  coast.  If  he  started  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Sobat  River,  about  2,000  miles  from  Cairo,  the  nearest 
mission  station  to  the  west  is  1,500  miles  away,  in  North- 
ern Nigeria.  In  all  those  weary  miles  there  is  not  a 
single  church  spire  pointing  toward  the  stars  or  a  home 
where  a  missionary  family  lives. 

Taking  the  continent  as  a  whole,  there  are  at  least 
fifty  millions  of  people  who  are  not  only  entirely  outside 
the  reach  but  even  of  the  plans  of  any  missionary  society 
now  at  work  on  the  continent. 


50  The  Call  of  the  World 

V.    Asia 

In  Asia  live  more  than  one  half  of  the  human  race. 
Accepting  the  figures  of  the  Statesman  s  Year  Book,  the 
population  of  the  world  is  1,698,552,204.  The  popula- 
tion of  Asia  is  given  as  958,781,233.  Of  every  hundred 
people  in  the  earth  fifty-six  live  in  Asia.  Of  these  fifty- 
six,  forty-three  out  of  every  hundred  live  in  China  and 
India.  Asia  as  a  whole  has  9,013  workers,  according  to 
the  World  Atlas  of  Christian  Missions,  each  having  an 
average  parish  of  1,781  square  miles,  containing  an  aver- 
age of  106,377  people.  Let  us  survey  the  continent,  "be- 
ginning from  Jerusalem." 

I.  The  Near  East. — The  Asiatic  Levant,  or  Near 
East  includes  Turkey,  Persia,  and  Arabia.  This  terri- 
tory has  an  area  of  2,381,310  square  miles  and  a  popula- 
tion of  a  little  more  than  thirty-four  millions.  This 
region  where  Christ  was  born  and  wrought  his  mighty 
works  is  to-day  in  desperate  need  of  his  message  and 
life. 

(i)  Turkey  has  an  area  of  693,610  square  miles,  and 
is  therefore  more  than  eighty-six  times  the  size  of  Massa- 
chusetts. This  great  area  has  only  2,836  miles  of  rail- 
road, while  Pennsylvania  with  one  fifteenth  its  area  has 
15,415  miles.  Turkey  includes  Asia  Minor,  Armenia, 
Kurdistan,  Mesopotamia,  Syria,  and  a  portion  of  Arabia. 
Turkey  has  a  population  of  17,683,550,  fourteen  millions 
of  whom  are  Mohammedans  and  the  rest  divided  among 
Christian  churches;  a  majority  of  these  are  in  Asia 
Minor  and  Armenia.  There  are  only  354  missionaries, 
including  wives,  in  all  Turkey.  The  Mohammedan  popu- 
lation is  practically  untouched,  since  a  majority  of  the 


The  Challenge  of  a  Great  Task  51 

missionaries  for  political  and  other  reasons  have  devoted 
comparatively  little  of  their  time  to  them. 

(2)  Persia  is  nearly  as  large  as  Turkey  but  has  not 
more  than  one  half  of  the  population.  The  country  ex- 
tends about  700  miles  north  and  south  and  900  miles 
east  and  west.  Millions  of  the  people  are  difficult  of 
access  because  Persia  has  only  six  miles  of  railroad,  and 
political  conditions  have  been  unfavorable  to  missionary 
effort.  This  railroad  was  opened  in  1888,  and  since  that 
time  no  other  railroads  have  been  built.  Not  only  are 
there  no  railroads  but  only  a  few  good  carriage  roads. 
Twelve  of  these  cities  have  a  population  ranging  from 
thirty  thousand  in  Kashan  to  two  hundred  and  eighty 
thousand  in  Teheran,  the  capital.  Four  of  the  large 
cities  have  not  been  occupied  by  missionaries.  There  are 
eighty-four  missionaries  for  the  more  than  nine  and  a 
half  millions  of  population. 

(3)  Arabia  includes  a  territory  1,500  miles  long  by 
1,200  miles  wide.  Much  of  this  country  is  only  partially 
explored.  The  eight  millions  of  population  are  almost  all 
Mohammedans.  Of  the  six  provinces  only  three  are  oc- 
cupied by  missionaries,  and  in  the  coast-line  of  4,000 
miles  there  are  workers  in  only  four  centers — Aden,  Mus- 
cat, Bahrein,  and  Busrah,  and  not  one  in  the  interior. 
Along  the  1,500  miles  of  Red  Sea  coast  from  Suez  to 
Aden,  passing  the  Sinai  Peninsula  and  the  forbidden 
city  of  Mecca  on  the  way,  there  is  not  one  missionary. 
From  Aden  to  Muscat  is  a  journey  of  nearly  1,500  miles, 
from  there  to  Bahrein  is  550,  and  Busrah  is  400  miles 
further  on. 

The  judgment  of  the  Edinburgh  Conference  was  that 
at  least  six  of  the  eight  millions  are  beyond  the  reach  of 


52  The  Call  of  the  World 

the  present  missionary  force.  Unless  there  is  adequate 
response  in  Christendom  six  millions  of  our  fellow  beings 
in  this  one  land  must  lie  down  and  die  without  a  knowl- 
edge of  Christ. 

2.  Central  Asia. — Between  the  Near  East  and  the 
Far  East  is  Central  Asia.  The  lands  located  here  are 
comparatively  little  known,  and  in  part  unexplored.  They 
have  an  area  of  2,700,000  square  miles,  nearly  as  great 
as  the  United  States.  Out  of  this  area  we  could  carve 
fifty-two  Englands,  or  nearly  eight  provinces  the  size 
of  British  Columbia,  or  twenty-four  countries  as  large  as 
Italy.  The  population  is  quite  dense  in  the  oases  and 
along  the  rivers,  but  in  other  parts  widely  scattered,  so 
that  the  numbers  are  not  nearly  so  great  as  in  the  coun- 
tries with  which  its  geographical  area  has  been  com- 
pared. There  are,  however,  23,368,000  people.  We  have 
here  a  bewildering  array  of  races  and  languages. 

The  most  important  of  these  lands  are  Afghanistan, 
Chinese  Turkestan,  Tibet,  and  Russian  Turkestan.  The 
entire  region  is  overwhelmed  by  the  intellectual  stagna- 
tion and  moral  rottenness  of  Mohammendanism,  except 
Tibet,  which  is  the  stronghold  of  Lamaism,  a  corrupt 
form  of  Buddhism. 

In  all  this  region  there  are  only  three  mission  stations, 
and  not  a  physician  or  hospital  anywhere.  It  is  2,000 
miles  from  the  Moravian  station  at  Leh  to  the  first  out- 
post of  the  China  Inland  Mission  in  China.  From  the 
last  station  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  in  North 
India  it  is  1,000  miles  northward  to  the  next  missionary 
outpost. 

In  this  territory  there  are  some  cities  of  considerable 
size  like  Bokhara,  which  has  10,000  students  and  364 


The  Challenge  of  a  Great  Task  53 

mosques,  but  no  Christian  church,  and  Tashkend  with  a 
population  of  more  than  155,000.  There  are  a  dozen  or 
more  cities  with  populations  reaching  from  25,000  to 
200,000. 

Afghanistan  is  unoccupied  by  Christian  missions. 
Fanaticism  and  hatred  of  Christ  hold  sway  everywhere. 
According  to  Dr.  S.  M.  Zwemer,  94  per  cent,  of  the 
people  are  illiterate.  Mohammed  has  swept  the  field. 
Only  fearless  workers  can  win  this  land. 

Tibet  is  still  the  Gibraltar  of  the  non-Christian  world, 
and  although  a  line  of  missionary  outposts  is  drawn 
around  it,  in  one  place  there  is  a  gap  of  1,500  miles  be- 
tween stations. 

3.  India. — India  is  the  burning  heart  of  Asia.  It 
has  a  genius  for  religion  unsurpassed  in  the  world. 

India  has  been  called  the  Mother  of  Religions.  Of 
the  four  great  faiths  which  were  born  in  Asia,  two  came 
from  India. 

India  is  a  menagerie  of  races  and  languages.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Edinburgh  Conference  Report  there  are  147 
languages  in  India.  Some  of  these  are  spoken  by  only  a 
few  people,  but  there  are  ten  languages,  each  of  which  is 
spoken  by  ten  millions  or  more. 

The  census  of  191 1  gives  the  population  of  the  coun- 
try as  315,132,537.  Of  every  hundred  people  in  the 
world  eighteen  live  in  this  one  land.  Among  them  there 
are  two  hundred  and  seventeen  millions  of  Hindus,  more 
than  sixty-six  and  a  half  millions  of  Mohammedans  and 
3,876,196  Christians.  There  are  ten  millions  of  Buddhists 
in  Burmah.  George  Sherwood  Eddy  says  there  are  four 
and  one-half  millions  of  mendicants  or  holy  men.  These 
figures  are  all  the  more  startling  when  it  is  recalled  that 


54  The  Call  of  the  World 

the  holy  men  outnumber  the  Christians  by  several  hun- 
dred thousand. 

The  caste  system  makes  India  one  of  the  most  dif- 
ficult mission  fields  in  the  world.  There  are  2,378  prin- 
cipal castes  and  tribes,  but  all  these  are  subdivided  so  that 
there  are  100,000  caste  divisions  in  India  and  no  two  of 
these  can  intermarry.  The  Brahmins  have  886  sub- 
castes.  Of  the  144,000,000  women,  in  1901,  according 
to  the  Statesman's  Year  Book,  there  were  26,000,000 
widows,  or  one  in  six.  On  account  of  the  fact  that 
they  are  not  allowed  to  remarry  and  other  hard  social 
conditions  their  lot  is  pitiable  indeed.  Of  these  widows 
it  is  reported  there  are  115,285  under  ten  years  of  age, 
19,487  under  five,  and  1,064  under  one  year  of  age. 

India  has  only  3,555  newspapers  and  periodicals  of  all 
kinds,  while  the  United  States  with  less  than  one  third 
the  population  has  more  than  six  times  as  many.  Only 
about  five  out  of  each  hundred  people  can  read  or  write. 
Of  39,ooo,,ooo  children  of  school  age,  28,000,000  are 
growing  up  without  schooling. 

India  has  4,635  missionaries,  counting  wives,  or  one  to 
every  67,989  of  the  population.  If  wives  are  not  counted, 
each  worker  has  a  parish  of  93,901.  The  preamble  of 
the  constitution  adopted  by  the  National  Missionary  So- 
ciety of  India  two  years  ago,  states  that  only  one  third 
of  India  has  been  reached  by  missionaries  and  that  one 
third  only  partially.  There  are  whole  districts,  densely 
populated,  where  there  is  no  missionary,  and  in  some  not 
even  a  native  Christian. 

In  the  Bombay  Presidency  it  is  reported  that  there 
are  thirty  districts,  each  with  a  population  of  over 
50,000,  in  not  one  of  which  is  there  a  missionary  or  a 


The  Challenge  of  a  Great  Task  55 

native  worker.  In  Sind  there  are  3,000,000  people  and 
only  three  mission  stations  in  the  province.  'In  north- 
ern Bengal,"  says  George  Sherwood  Eddy,  "there  is  only 
one  missionary  to  every  two  million  of  the  population." 
The  problem  of  determining  the  exact  situation  for 
the  whole  of  India  was  so  complex  that  the  Edinburgh 
Conference  was  not  able  to  give  a  definite  statement  re- 
garding even  the  approximate  number  of  people  who  are 
not  reached,  but  considering  all  the  facts  it  seems  a  fair 
estimate  to  say  that  there  are  living  to-day  in  India  at 
least  150,000,000  people  without  Christ,  and  yet  none  of 
whom  can  hope  to  know  him  unless  the  force  of  mission- 
aries and  native  workers  is  greatly  increased. 

4.  Bhutan  and  Nepal. — These  two  wholly  unoccu- 
pied states  north  of  India  are  usually  overlooked,  yet 
Bhutan  has  a  population  of  250,000,  and  Nepal,  which 
is  not  quite  as  large  as  Michigan,  has  five  milHons  of 
people,  or  twice  as  many  as  there  are  in  that  State. 

5.  French  Indo-China. — This  portion  of  Asia  is 
six  times  as  large  as  New  York,  with  a  population  of 
about  sixteen  and  a  half  millions.  Roman  Catholics  are 
allowed  in  all  parts  of  French  Indo-China.  In  all  this 
region  there  are  but  two  Protestant  mission  stations,  one 
in  Annam  and  one  in  Laos.  Except  in  the  two  missions 
mentioned,  there  is  not  a  hospital  or  even  a  physician 
or  trained  nurse  in  the  whole  territory.  The  attitude 
of  the  government  has  been  unfriendly  to  missionary 
effort.  Vast  populations  are  absolutely  ignorant  of  Christ 
and  his  gospel.  No  Protestant  mission  work  is  carried 
on  in  Cambodia,  Cochin-China,  or  Tongking. 

6.  Japan. — Everyone  who  has  studied  the  geogra- 
phy of  Asia  has  been  impressed  with  the  strategic  geo- 


56  The  Call  of  the  World 

graphical  position  of  Japan.  This  Hne  of  islands  circling 
the  seacoast  of  Asia  from  Siberia  to  southern  China  is 
truly  the  gateway  of  the  Orient.  The  Japanese  Chris- 
tians and  some  of  the  missionaries  have  strongly  advo- 
cated independence  and  also  the  union  of  the  Christian 
forces. 

Many  think  that  Japan  is  largely  evangelized,  but  one 
fact  will  make  it  clear  that  this  is  an  erroneous  idea. 
Half  of  the  population  of  Japan  are  farmers  and  have 
scarcely  been  touched  at  all.  It  will  be  readily  seen  why 
this  is  so  when  it  is  stated  that  60  per  cent,  of  the  mis- 
sionaries are  in  eight  cities,  Tokyo  alone  being  the  head- 
quarters of  279  of  the  total  of  1,029  missionaries  in  the 
Empire.    These  figures  include  wives. 

7.  Korea. — This  land,  only  slightly  larger  than 
Kansas,  was  closed  to  foreign  influence  until  twenty-five 
years  ago.  It  has  a  population  of  approximately  twelve 
millions.  There  are  307  missionaries,  including  wives, 
two  fifths  of  them  in  the  south,  in  one  fourth  of  the  area 
of  the  country.  Korea  is  a  conspicuous  example  of  an 
entire  nation  divided  up  among  the  missions  at  work  in 
it.  That  division  is  now  complete,  and  the  eight  de- 
nominations having  representatives  in  the  country  each 
have  a  clearly  defined  territory.  Responsibility  for  every 
foot  of  soil  is  definitely  assigned,  although  millions  of 
the  Koreans  have  not  yet  had  the  gospel  preached  to 
them  in  an  adequate  way. 

8.  China. — This  is  the  world's  newest  and  largest 
republic.  Bishop  Bashford's  statement  is  no  doubt  true 
that  the  greatest  compliment  ever  paid  to  the  United 
States  in  its  history  was  when  four  hundred  millions  of 
people  accepted  its  form  of  government  as  their  model. 


The  Challenge  of  a  Great  Task  57 

According  to  the  Statesman's  Year  Book,  the  popula- 
tion of  the  Chinese  Empire  is  433,533,030,  with  an  area 
of  4,277,170.  If  we  omit  India  alone  there  are  more  non- 
Christians  here  than  in  all  the  rest  of  the  world.  Ac- 
cording to  the  World  Atlas  of  Christian  Missions  there 
are  at  present  in  China  4,197  missionaries  of  all  classes. 
This  gives  a  total  of  103,300  people  and  a  parish  of  1,018 
square  miles  to  each  missionary.  All  the  provinces  and, 
except  Tibet,  all  the  dependencies  have  some  mission  sta- 
tions, yet  there  are  great  populations  which  are  yet  un- 
reached. 

Let  us  look  at  two  or  three  sections  of  the  problem. 

Sin  Kiang  has  thirty-eight  walled  cities,  but  there  are 
missionaries  in  only  two  of  these  cities. 

Mongolia,  twenty-four  times  the  size  of  the  State  of 
Iowa  or  six  times  as  large  as  the  Province  of  Ontario, 
has  but  ten  missionaries.  One's  heart  is  deeply  moved  as 
thought  goes  back  to  the  time  when  Gilmour  began  his 
heroic  labors  in  Mongolia.  When  he  came  within  sight 
of  the  first  native  hut  he  fell  upon  his  knees  and  thanked 
God  for  a  redeemed  Mongolia.  In  our  time  there  is  need 
of  a  thousand  Gilmours  with  the  same  daring  of  faith 
and  uttermost  devotion  of  life  to  carry  the  gospel  mes- 
sage to  these  vigorous  and  wonderful  people  just  now 
emerging  into  the  light  of  modern  life. 

Manchuria  has  a  population  estimated  at  20,000,000, 
but  only  the  southern  and  western  portions  are  occupied 
at  all.  One  of  the  missionaries  in  reporting  to  the  Edin- 
burgh Conference  says  that  two  thirds  of  the  population 
in  his  field  have  not  even  been  approached. 

Dr.  Fulton  reported  to  the  Edinburgh  Conference  that 
within  140  miles  of  the  scene  of  the  labors  of  the  first 


58 


The  Call  of  the  World 


missionary  to  China,  Robert  Morrison,  there  are  three 
counties  containing  some  ten  thousand  villages,  averag- 
ing two  hundred  and  fifty  inhabitants  each  and  so  near 
one  another  that  in  some  cases  from  a  central  point  six 
hundred  villages  may  be  counted  within  a  radius  of  five 
miles.  He  says  that  in  hundreds  of  these  no  missionary 
or  Christian  preacher  has  ever  set  foot. 

Some  time  ago  a  striking  map  appeared  in  China's 
Millions^  and  is  reproduced  in  The  Unoccupied  Fields, 
contrasting  England  and  Wales  with  the  province  of 
Honan.  While  conditions  have  changed  somewhat  since 
the  map  was  made,  it  is  still  sufficiently  accurate  for 
illustration.  On  this  map  are  shown  1,846  villages  and 
cities.  There  are  106  walled  official  cities,  only  twenty- 
six  of  which  have  resident  missionaries.  Three  other 
large  towns  are  occupied  as  mission  stations,  only  twenty- 
nine  places  occupied  out  of  the  1,846. 

ENGLAND  AND  WALES  HONAN 

58,309  sq.  miles     67,940  sq.  miles. 
32,526,075  (1901) 


Area 

Population 
Ordained 
Ministry 


32,897 


35,316,800   (1901) 
112  missionaries   (in- 
cluding wives    and 
single  ladies) 
159    Chinese    helpers 
(including  women) 


Local 

Preachers         52,341 
Average  area 

of  parish  i^  sq.  miles     1,788  sq.  miles. 

Average  population 

of  parish  1,000  929^3^9 

The  dimensions  of  the  task  remaining  in  China  are 
sufficiently  summarized  by  stating  that  there  are  2,033 
walled  cities  in  the  Empire  and  that  only  476  of  them 


The  Challenge  op*  X  Great  Task  '59 

have  missionaries,  leaving  1,557  of  the  principal  cities 
unoccupied. 

Summary  of  Conditions  in  the  Non-Christian 
World 

1.  Fields  Unoccupied  but  Open 

( 1 )  Large  portions  of  Mongolia,  Manchuria,  and 
Central  Asia 

(2)  Many  parts  of  Africa 

2.  Fields  Unoccupied  by  either  Protestant  or  Catholic 
Missions  because  Closed  to  All  Christian  Work 

(1)  Tibet 

(2)  Nepal 

(3)  Bhutan 

(4)  Afghanistan 

3.  Fields  Unoccupied  by  Protestant  Missions  because 
of  Government  Opposition 

(i)     French  Indo-China 

(2)     French  Possessions  in  Africa 

These  three  lists  represent  the  work  yet  to  be  begun. 

4.  The  Religion  Least  Reached  is  Mohammedanism 
Conservative  estimates  state  that  not  less  than   150,- 

000,000  Mohammedans  are   not  being  reached  in  any 
adequate  way  by  the  Christian  gospel. 

5.  The  World  as  a  Whole,  (i)  The  Edinburgh  Con- 
ference Report  says  that  there  are  119,000,000  people  in 
Asia  and  Africa  who  are  not  even  included  in  the  plans 
of  any  missionary  society  on  earth.  (2)  There  are  many 
more  millions — and  no  one  knows  accurately  how  many 
— who  are  included  in  plans  which  have  not  yet  been  car- 
ried out.  (3)  In  view  of  the  facts  presented  it  is  prob- 
ably a  safe  estimate  to  say  that  with  the  present  forces 


6o  The  Call  of  the  World 

in  the  field  500,000,000  people  will  pass  out  of  this  gene- 
ration without  having  a  fair  chance  to  know  Christ  and 
his  message  of  redemption,  unless  the  Church  pours  out 


RaiBIOUS  CENSUS  OriHL  WORLD 


World  Population,  1912 
1,700.000,000 


a  princely  offering  of  lives  and  money  and  prayer  to  give 
them  that  opportunity. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  there  are  such  multitudes 
of  people  who  have  never  had  a  chance  to  adopt  a  living 
creed  adequate  to  the  facts  of  life;  that  there  are  still 


The  Challenge  of  a  Great  Task  6i 

whole  nations  which  are  the  habitations  of  nameless 
cruelty;  millions  for  whom  as  yet  Christ  died  in  vain; 
vast  regions  where  there  is  a  starless  sky,  a  bottomless 
need,  a  life  full  of  fear  and  a  future  without  hope — this 
certainly  presents  a  task  which  may  well  test  to  the  ut- 
most the  vitality  and  devotion  of  Christendom.  One 
look  at  the  immensity  of  the  problem  drives  us  back  upon 
the  measureless  resources  of  God.  Over  against  the 
greatness  of  the  task  we  place  the  greatness  of  our  God. 
He  alone  is  sufficient  for  these  things. 

The  great  question  to  be  answered  now  is  whether 
or  not  there  have  been  developed  in  Christian  lands  a 
faith  and  power  sufficient  for  this  most  momentous  hour 
for  the  human  race.  The  supreme  question  of  missions 
is  the  development  in  Christendom  of  a  vitality  equal  to 
carrying  the  faith  of  Christ  to  the  last  man  in  the  world. 

Is  my  Christianity  equal  to  this  task?  Will  the  Chris- 
tianity of  my  Church  go  to  the  limit  of  devotion  to  the 
plans  of  Christ  ?  Is  American  Christianity  strong  enough 
so  God  can  anchor  a  planet  to  America  without  wreck- 
ing America?  In  this  great  hour  you  must  answer  and 
so  must  I  and  so  must  the  Church.  Accepting  the  great 
opportunity  with  an  unmoved  confidence  in  final  victory, 
let  every  man  joyously  put  his  hands  between  the  King's 
hands  to  follow  him  forever. 

Some  questions  in  parliamentary  law  are  undebatable. 
Having  been  faced  squarely  and  the  decision  made,  the 
vote  is  cast  in  silence.  When  a  Christian  man  has  once 
understood  what  the  call  of  Christ  is,  and  what  moral 
and  spiritual  demands  that  call  makes  upon  men,  the  only 
possible  attitude  which  a  real  man  can  take  is  obedience 
without  debate. 


62  The  Call  of  the  World 

BOOKS  FOR  ADVANCED  READING 

Carrying  the  Gospel  to  All  the  World.  Vol.  i.  Edin- 
burgh Conference  Report. 

Zwemer,  S.  M.  The  Unoccupied  Mission  Fields  of 
Africa  and  Asia.  Student  Volunteer  Movement,  125 
E.  27th  St.,  New  York.     $1.00. 

Barton,  James  L.  The  Unfinished  Task.  Student  Volun- 
teer Movement,  125  E.  27th  St.,  New  York. 

Dennis,  James  S.  Social  Evils  of  the  Non-Christian 
World.    Student  Volunteer  Movement.     $0.35. 

Moscrop,  Thomas.  The  Kingdom  Without  Frontiers. 
Eaton  &  Mains,  150  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York.    $1.00. 


CHAPTER   III 
AMERICA'S    POSITION    IN    THE    WORLD    BATTLE 

That  was  a  great  day  for  the  world  when  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  started  on  their  history-making  journey  across 
the  Atlantic  to  America.  There  is  no  more  thrilling 
scene  in  the  beginnings  of  the  history  of  any  nation.  A 
service  of  solemn  consecration  was  held  in  the  church. 
Then  the  immortal  company  marched  to  the  sea  led  by 
their  pastor,  John  Robinson,  reading  from  an  open  Bible 
those  words  in  Genesis  xii.  1-3,  which  must  have  had  a 
prophetic  meaning  to  every  man  within  the  sound  of  the 
pastor's  voice. 

"Now  Jehovah  said  unto  Abram,  Get  thee  out  of  thy 
country,  and  from  thy  kindred,  and  from  thy  father's 
house,  unto  the  land  that  I  will  show  thee;  and  I  will 
make  of  thee  a  great  nation,  and  I  will  bless  thee,  and 
make  thy  name  great ;  and  be  thou  a  blessing :  and  I  will 
bless  them  that  bless  thee,  and  him  that  curseth  thee  will 
I  curse :  and  in  thee  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth  be 
blessed." 

It  was  a  summons  across  the  centuries  to  a  new  and 
profound  application  of  the  principles  of  religion  to  na- 
tion building.  The  conviction  burned  in  their  hearts 
that  God  was  sending  them  out  on  a  divine  mission  and 
that  they  were  to  found  on  this  side  the  sea  a  nation 
which  should  bear  an  important  part  in  the  world  plans 

63 


64  The  Call  of  the  World 

of  Christianity.  There  are  no  words  in  the  Bible  which 
have  a  more  wonderful  meaning  in  the  light  of  the  ex- 
panding purpose  of  God  for  America  than  these  words 
of  commission  to  Abraham  which  were  accepted  as  God's 
commission  to  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  In  the  days  that 
followed  God  was  as  good  as  His  word  and  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  were  as  good  as  theirs. 

There  is  a  growing  conviction  with  many  leaders  in 
America  that  one  of  the  central  features  of  our  religious 
life  should  be  this  sense  of  mission.  In  the  history  of 
the  expanding  Kingdom,  God  has  evidently  given  to 
America  a  commanding  place  of  leadership  and  power. 
This  is  nothing  less  than  a  divine  appointment.  To 
have  such  an  appointment  as  this  in  a  time  like  ours, 
from  our  God,  is  to  have  a  share  in  a  task  like  no 
other  task  the  world  has  ever  seen.  To  make  men  see 
that  the  redeeming  of  America  is  strategy  of  a  high 
order  is  to  strike  a  high  note  of  summons  to  extend  the 
sway  of  Christ  to  the  remotest  bounds  of  our  own  con- 
tinent. To  hasten  the  time  when  this  conviction  shall 
leaven  the  thinking  of  American  Christianity  and  when 
this  sense  of  mission  shall  liberate  the  measureless  spirit- 
ual and  material  energies  of  America  to  bless  the  world 
should  be  the  aim  of  every  Christian  American. 

What  are  some  of  the  signs  that  America  has  been 
called  to  a  place  of  leadership  in  the  Kingdom?  Are 
there  certain  principles  according  to  which  God  selects 
men  and  nations  for  the  fulfilment  of  his  world  pur- 
poses ?  Do  these  principles  and  purposes  emerge  in  God's 
dealing  with  America?  The  answer  to  these  questions 
has  a  deep  missionary  significance. 

Among  the   principles  which   God  has  evidently   ap- 


America's  Position  in  the  World  Battle      65 

plied  in  choosing  his  prophets  through  the  ages,  the  fol- 
lowing are  unmistakably  clear : 

1.  Prophets  Are  Strategically  Located. 

2.  Prophets  Are  Chosen  Because  of  a  Certain 
Fitness  of  Character. 

3.  Prophets  Have  Resources  Sufficient  for 
Their  Task. 

4.  Prophets  Remain  Such  only  so  Long  as  They 
Have  Vision  and  Consecration  Adequate  to  Their 
Task. 

These  principles  apply  to  the  outstanding  prophetic 
figures  of  all  times.  Amos  and  Hosea,  Isaiah  and 
Malachi  in  the  Old  Testament,  Paul  in  the  New,  Luther 
and  Wesley  in  modern  times,  all  illustrate  the  working  of 
these  laws. 

The  principles  stated  above  apply  to  nations  as  well  as 
to  individual  men.  Israel  may  be  taken  as  an  illustra- 
tion. Palestine  was  the  crossroads  of  the  world.  Israel 
was  centrally  located  so  that  she  had  an  unusual  oppor- 
tunity to  influence  the  known  world.  Her  leaders  had 
a  message  and  a  spiritual  insight  unique  in  their  day. 
They  were  a  people  chosen  not  for  privilege  but  for  ser- 
vice, and  when  in  the  supreme  test  the  nation  failed  to 
understand  and  accept  its  world-wide  mission,  God  was 
compelled  to  move  westward  in  his  choice  of  a  new  pro- 
phetic race  to  bear  his  message  to  the  world. 

There  is  a  tradition  that  Christ  died  with  his  face 
turned  westward.  Whether  this  be  true  or  not,  men  in 
these  Western  lands,  with  the  missionary  principle  at  the 
center  of  life,  may  well  be  steadied  and  strengthened  by 
the  thought  that  Christ  saw  across  centuries  and  civiliza- 
tions the  new  peoples  in  the  West  who  were  to  be  called 


66  The  Call  of  the  World 

to  a  prophet's  place  in  his  Kingdom.  At  any  rate  the 
westward  movement  outhned  in  Acts  and  later  history, 
from  Palestine  to  Europe,  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  to 
America,  is  an  unmistakable  indication  of  God's  plan. 
For  two  thousand  years  this  movement  has  been  gather- 
ing momentum  for  impact  on  the  mighty  East. 

The  United  States  and  Canada  are  standing  together 
solidly  in  all  the  great  religious  and  missionary  move- 
ments of  our  time.  In  the  discussions  that  follow  there 
is  no  thought  of  minimizing  Canada's  position  of  leader- 
ship. She  has  vast  dimensions  and  almost  unlimited 
latent  resources.  Her  response  to  the  call  of  world-wide 
missions  is  inspiring.  The  national  missionary  policy 
adopted  by  the  Canadian  churches  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  National  Campaign  of  the  Laymen's  Missionary 
Movement  in  1909  set  a  definite  goal  for  the  Dominion 
which  is  much  more  nearly  realized  to  date  than  that 
suggested  for  the  United  States  by  the  National  Congress 
in  Chicago  in  1910.  These  two  nations  are  inseparably 
united  in  common  missionary  ideals  and  plans  and  in  a 
common  missionary  purpose.  On  both  sides  of  the 
border  Huntington's  hymn  may  be  sung  with  real  sin- 
cerity. 

Two  empires  by  the  sea, 

Two  nations  great  and  free 
One  anthem  raise. 

One  race  of  ancient  fame, 

One  tongue,  one  faith  we  claim, 

One  God  whose  glorious  name 
We  love  and  praise. 

Now  may  the  God  above 
Guard  the  dear  lands  we  love, 
Both  east  and  west. 


America's  Position  in  the  World  Battle      6'] 

Let  love  more  fervent  glow- 
As  peaceful  ages  go, 
And  strength  yet  stronger  grow 
Blessing  and  blest. 

Canadians  will  find  it  easy  to  apply  to  their  own  land 
the  principles  here  stated.  Some  of  the  illustrations  are 
taken  from  Canada,  but  of  necessity  a  majority  refer  to 
the  United  States.  A  pamphlet  entitled  ''5,000  Facts 
About  Canada,"  published  by  Canadian  Facts  Publish- 
ing Co.,  Toronto,  is  illuminating  reading. 

America's  Place  of  Leadership  in  the  Kingdom  of 
God  is  Indicated  by  Her  Strategic  Location  and 
Other  Geographical  Conditions. 

Provincialism  has  no  place  in  true  statesmanship,  espe- 
cially the  statesmanship  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  It  was 
Salisbury  who,  in  the  English  Parliament,  took  as  the 
basis  of  one  of  his  greatest  speeches  the  phrase  ''Study 
large  maps."  It  was  Carey  who  said  that  he  received 
his  call  by  studying  the  Bible  beside  the  map  of  the 
world.  Gladstone  had  great  power  of  discriminating 
judgment  and  it  was  he  who  said,  "America  has  a 
natural  base  for  the  greatest  continuous  empire  ever 
established  by  mankind." 

The  strategic  position  of  America  is  indicated  by  the 
following  facts: 

I.  The  United  States  faces  the  two  great  oceans.  So 
does  Canada,  but  with  that  exception  there  is  no  other 
commanding  nation  that  has  a  great  coast-line  on  both 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Oceans.  With  many  miles  of 
coast-line  on  the  east,  America  looks  out  toward  the 


68  The  Call  of  the  World 

history-making  nations  of  the  past.  Westward  she  faces 
that  sea  upon  which  look  out  the  eyes  of  one  half  of  the 
human  race  where  life  is  all  athrob  with  the  new 
awakening. 

The  six  great  naval  powers  of  the  world  in  the  order  of 
their  strength  are  Great  Britain,  Germany,  the  United 
States,  France,  Japan,  and  Russia.  The  coast-line  of  the 
United  States  exceeds  the  coast-lines  of  any  five  of  them 
added  together.  It  is  surely  significant  that  God  has 
given  America  control  of  so  much  coast-line  on  both 
oceans  and  so  many  harbors  for  commerce  and  as  distrib- 
uting centers  for  the  gospel.  The  most  significant  thing 
about  our  past  is  that  we  grew  out  of  the  best  life  of 
Europe  and  inherit  the  intellectual  and  moral  fiber  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon.  One  of  the  most  significant  facts  about 
our  future  is  that  with  three  thousand  miles  of  coast-line 
we  face  to'»vnrd  the  Orient  where  the  coming  world  con- 
flicts are  to  be  waged. 

2.  The  United  States  is  the  nearest  commanding 
power  to  the  undeveloped  parts  of  the  world.  The  great 
undeveloped  regions  are  the  Canadian  Northwest,  Alaska, 
Siberia,  Australia,  South  America,  Africa.  All  these  face 
on  the  Pacific  Ocean  except  Africa,  and  in  the  aggregate 
America  is  nearer  to  them  all  than  any  other  great  Prot- 
estant Christian  power.  The  Panama  Canal  will  make 
the  nearness  all  the  more  significant  since  its  completion 
will  bring  Shanghai  much  nearer  New  York  by  boat  than 
it  is  now. 

3.  The  United  States  has  many  great  harbors.  Not 
one  of  the  nations  of  Europe  has  more  than  two  or  three 
great  harbors,  several  of  them  have  none.  Russia  is  too 
far  north.     Germany  is  at  a  disadvantage  because  she 


America's  Position  in  the  World  Battle      69 

has  no  direct  access  to  the  Atlantic.  Great  Britain  com- 
mands that  ocean.  The  United  States  has  several  har- 
bors on  the  east  coast,  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  on  the 
south,  while  on  the  west  coast  there  are  two  of  the  most 
important  harbors  in  the  Western  Hemisphere  opening 
into  the  Pacific  Ocean — San  Francisco  Bay,  where  come 
and  go  the  navies  of  the  world,  and  Puget  Sound,  the 
Mediterranean  of  America,  with  its  1,500  miles  of  coast- 
line. 

4.  Navigable  rivers.  The  Encyclopedia  Britannica 
says  that  the  Mississippi  River  with  its  branches  affords 
35,000  miles  of  navigable  waterway.  All  Europe  has  17,- 
000  miles,  or  less  than  one  half  the  length  of  the  great 
central  waterway  of  the  United  States.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  Napoleon  said,  'The  nation  which  controls  the  Mis- 
sissippi V^alley  will  be  the  most  powerful  nation  on  earth." 
There  are  only  two  navigable  rivers  flowing  into  the  Pa- 
cific Ocean  in  the  Western  Hemisphere,  the  Yukon  River, 
navigable  for  thirteen  hundred  miles,  and  the  Columbia, 
opening  into  a  great  inland  empire.  Almost  the  entire 
navigable  extent  of  both  is  within  the  territory  of  the 
United  States,  although  they  drain  great  sections  of 
Canada. 

5.  Isolation  from  other  commanding  powers.  The 
favorable  location  of  the  United  States  for  internal  de- 
velopment is  equaled  by  no  other  nation  in  the  world,  be- 
cause of  the  fact  that  it  is  separated  by  many  thousands 
of  miles  of  sea  from  the  other  world  powers  of  our  time. 
England,  Germany,  France,  and  Russia  must  continually 
guard  their  frontiers  and  are  never  for  a  moment  free 
from  the  tremendous  pressure  of  mighty  and  aggressive 
peoples.     Our   nation   has   been   favored   with   the  one 


70  The  Call  of  the  World 

great  block  of  territory  in  the  North  Temperate  Zone, 
capable  of  vast  development  and  with  almost  infinite  va- 
riety of  soil  and  climate,  remote  from  other  powers. 
Otherwise  it  might  have  been  necessary  for  America  to 
devote  her  strength  to  defense  rather  than  the  develop- 
ment of  her  vast  resources. 

America  Has  Qualities  of  Character  Needed  for  a 
World  Task 

As  Emerson  has  well  said,  'The  true  test  of  civiliza- 
tion is  not  the  census,  not  the  size  of  its  cities,  nor  the 
crops,  but  in  the  kind  of  men  the  country  turns  out." 
Leroy  Beaulieu  has  this  to  say  about  Americans : 

'The  history  of  nations  like  the  history  of  individuals 
proves  beyond  peradventure  that  no  economic  strength, 
no  material  prosperity,  is  lasting  unless  it  be  sustained 
by  real  moral  worth. 

"Moral  worth,  which  includes  the  recognition  of  duties 
as  well  as  of  rights,  self-respect  and  respect  for  one's 
fellows,  has  contributed  fully  as  much  as  the  magnificent 
resources  of  their  country  to  the  brilliant  success  of  the 
American  people. 

"Of  the  qualities  that  have  cooperated  to  elevate  them 
so  rapidly  to  such  a  commanding  position,  the  most  im- 
pressive is  a  great,  a  tireless  energy." 

I.  Our  debt  to  the  pioneers.  The  early  history  of 
American  life  has  many  wholesome  chapters  for  modern 
men  to  read.  The  religious  basis  of  the  state  was  a  much 
more  evident  and  vital  fact  in  the  life  of  the  founders  of 
the  Republic  than  of  many  modern  leaders.  Quotations 
from  the  early  charters  make  it  clear  that  there  was  a 
wonderful  religious  significance  in  their  nation  building. 


America's  Position  in  the  World  Battle      71 

"This  thing  is  of  God,"  said  the  London  Trading  Com- 
pany to  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  'Tn  the  name  of  God, 
Amen,"  are  the  opening  words  of  the  Mayflower  compact, 
and  that  document  ends  with  these  words,  'Tor  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  advancement  of  the  Christian  faith." 
The  early  settlers  of  North  and  South  Carolina  declared 
themselves  to  be  actuated  by  laudable  zeal  for  the  propa- 
gation of  the  gospel.  America  owes  much  to  the  charac- 
ter and  vigor  of  the  German  and  Scandinavian  elements 
in  her  population  as  well  as  to  those  of  English  parentage. 
No  land  has  had  a  higher  grade  of  founders  than  has  the 
United  States. 

Leroy  Beaulieu  says,  in  The  United  States  in  the  Twen- 
tieth Century :  "The  Americans  have  been  the  product  of  a 
selection  and  of  a  double  selection.  Only  the  boldest,  the 
most  enterprising  of  men  have  the  courage  to  traverse  the 
sea  for  the  purpose  of  carving  out  a  new  life  in  an  un- 
known and  distant  land.  Then,  having  arrived,  only  the 
most  energetic,  the  wisest,  and  the  most  gifted  in  the 
spirit  of  organization  succeed  in  a  struggle  which  is  more 
severe,  more  merciless  to  the  feeble,  in  new  countries  than 
in  old  ones.  Thus  America,  so  to  speak,  has  secured  the 
cream  of  Old  World  society.  That  is  why  the  human 
standard  is  higher  there  than  in  other  countries." 

2.  Mechanical  genius.  In  the  world-wide  propaga- 
tion of  the  gospel  the  ability  to  master  the  forces  of 
nature  and  so  make  modern  progress  possible  has  a  place 
in  the  fitness  of  character  displayed  by  American  life.  A 
large  number  of  the  modern  labor-saving  inventions  have 
come  from  America  as  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  one  of 
the  great  International  Expositions  five  gold  medals  were 
offered  for  the  greatest  labor-saving  inventions.    When 


72  The  Call  of  the  World 

the  awards  were  made,  it  was  discovered  that  all  of  them 
were  bestowed  for  inventions  in  the  United  States. 

3.  The  public  school.  It  is  generally  acknowledged 
that  whatever  may  be  the  faults  and  imperfections  of  our 
intellectual  life,  the  American  public  school  has  demon- 
strated to  the  world  on  a  larger  scale  than  ever  before  the 
possibility  of  the  education  of  the  masses.  Japan  was 
quick  to  see  that  this  was  one  of  the  secrets  of  the  power 
of  Western  nations.  Nowhere  is  there  a  more  marvelous 
example  of  an  entire  nation  going  to  school  than  in  recent 
years  in  Japan,  where  probably  a  larger  percentage  of 
children  of  school  age  are  actually  in  school  to-day  than 
in  any  other  country  in  the  world.  It  is  generally  ac- 
knowledged that  America  has  set  the  pace  for  the  world 
in  her  system  of  common  schools.  Education,  not  ig- 
norance, is  everywhere  the  mother  of  devotion. 

4.  The  character  of  the  home  missionary.  The  United 
States  and  Canada  have  produced  a  great  race  of  home 
missionaries,  such  as  Robertson,  who  helped  to  dot  the  land 
with  Presbyterian  churches,  and  whose  name  is  a  house- 
hold word  in  Canada,  or  John  Eliot,  who  wrote  the  first 
book  published  in  America,  of  whom  the  poet  Southey 
says,  *'No  greater  man  has  ever  been  produced  by  any 
nation;"  David  Brainard,  whose  life  of  prayer  has  been 
an  inspiration  to  many  thousands  of  students  of  mis- 
sionary history ;  or  Sheldon  Jackson,  with  his  eye  ever  on 
the  horizon,  but  with  practical  zeal,  not  only  preach- 
ing the  gospel  throughout  the  vast  regions  of  the 
West  but  introducing  the  reindeer  into  Alaska,  thus  mak- 
ing a  great  economic  contribution  to  the  blessing  of  man- 
kind. These  men  are  typical  of  those  intrepid  heroes, 
who  on  the  prairies  of  western  Canada,  in  the  mining 


America's  Position  in  the  World  Battle      73 

sections  of  the  United  States,  or  in  the  heart  of  great 
cities,  are  the  founders  of  empires  as  well  as  the  builders 
of  churches ;  as  Dr.  C.  L.  Thompson  has  well  said,  "The 
march  of  our  civilization  is  to  the  music  of  our  religion." 

When  the  historian  correctly  interprets  the  story  of 
national  progress  in  the  nineteenth  century,  he  will  first 
of  all  take  account  of  the  home  missionary.  No  one  has 
helped  more  than  he  to  make  the  nation  great  and  strong. 
As  J.  Wesley  Johnston  puts  it,  'The  home  missionary 
was  a  founder  of  schools,  a  builder  of  churches,  a  maker 
of  states,  a  signer  of  treaties,  an  unfurler  of  flags,  and 
always  and  everywhere  a  genuine  American." 

5.  The  home  of  great  world  movements.  It  must  not 
be  forgotten  that  out  of  American  faith  and  courage  and 
vision  were  born  the  most  conspicuous  missionary  move- 
ments of  modern  times.  The  Moravians  and  Lutherans 
in  Germany  and  William  Carey  and  others  in  Great  Brit- 
ain blazed  the  way  for  the  modern  missionary  uprising. 
In  America  the  movement  for  world  evangelization  was 
greatly  quickened  and  expanded  by  companies  of  students 
at  Williams  College  and  Andover  Seminary.  The  pur- 
pose of  these  young  men  to  carry  the  gospel  abroad  when 
North  America  was  not  represented  by  missionaries  any- 
where in  the  non-Christian  world,  was  at  the  same  time 
a  mighty  challenge  to  faith  and  a  rebuke  to  the  narrow 
vision  of  American  Christianity  one  hundred  years  ago. 
Since  that  day  practically  all  the  conspicuous  interde- 
nominational missionary  movements  have  begun  their 
career  in  America.  What  student  of  missionary  history 
can  forget  that  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement  was 
born  in  a  conference  called  by  Dwight  L.  Moody !  This 
Movement  caused  America  to  dream  of  a  union  of  col- 


74  The  Call  of  the  World 

lege  men  throughout  the  world  for  the  world-wide  propa- 
gation of  the  gospel.  The  fruition  of  that  vision  is  The 
World's  Student  Christian  Federation,  binding  together 
the  students  of  many  lands  and  thousands  of  institutions 
of  higher  learning.  Let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  God 
planted  here  the  conviction  that  missionary  education  is 
central  in  the  life  of  the  Church  and  that  ten  years  ago 
at  Silver  Bay  on  Lake  George,  began  what  was  then 
known  as  the  Young  People's  Missionary  Movement  but 
which  has  recently  been  renamed  the  Missionary  Edu- 
cation Movement  of  the  United  States  and  Canada.  This 
Movement  has  spread  to  other  lands.  In  North  America 
alone  in  the  ten  years,  more  than  one  million  copies  of 
text-books  and  large  numbers  of  other  publications  have 
been  circulated  by  this  Movement. 

The  latest  of  these  evidences  of  the  missionary  life  of 
North  America  is  the  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement, 
which  is  now  organized  in  fourteen  of  the  principal  de- 
nominations of  North  America,  with  affiliated  movements 
in  three  others,  and  in  six  other  lands,  with  the  first 
steps  taken  toward  the  forming  of  three  additional  na- 
tional organizations.  Never,  until  the  Laymen's  Mis- 
sionary Movement  flung  out  the  challenge  have  Canada 
and  the  United  States  so  powerfully  felt  the  call  to  pro- 
ceed seriously  to  undertake  to  evangelize  their  share  of 
the  world. 

America  Has  Resources  Sufficient  for  the  Task  of 
A  Christian  World  Power 

There  is  abundance  of  intellectual,  moral  and  spiritual 
power  available.  Here  are  great  vigorous  churches  with 
many  millions  of  members.     Without  any  thought  of 


America's  Position  m  the  World  Battle      75 

minimizing  all  these  moral  and  spiritual  resources,  let  us 
think  of  the  problem  first  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
''sinews  of  war." 

I.  Size.  Bigness  is  not  always  to  be  mistaken  for 
greatness,  yet  size  gives  a  great  advantage  to  a  powerful 
people.  There  are  vast  regions  of  the  earth  that  will 
probably  never  be  inhabited  by  a  dense  population  because 
they  are  too  far  north.  This  fact  puts  a  limit  on  the 
future  population  of  the  Russian  Empire  that  is  not  true 
of  the  United  States.  Brazil  has  a  territory  nearly  equal 
to  the  United  States,  but  it  is  in  the  tropics,  and  it  may 
be  generations  before  the  vast  regions  in  Brazil  are 
opened  up  to  civilized  life.  China  is  the  one  formidable 
rival  of  the  United  States  because  of  her  size  and  enor- 
mous resources.  It  will,  however,  take  a  long  time  to 
develop  her  powers.  The  character  of  the  territory  of 
the  United  States,  capable  as  it  is  of  almost  infinite  va- 
riety of  agricultural  productions,  in  a  most  favorable  lo- 
cation in  the  North  Temperate  Zone,  with  so  little  waste 
territory,  may  lay  claim  to  favorable  possibiHties,  equaled 
perhaps  by  no  single  political  unit  in  the  world  except 
China.  In  short,  it  is  not  only  size  that  counts  but  a 
combination  of  great  extent  with  other  favoring  forces. 
If  we  add  together  the  eighteen  provinces  of  China 
proper,  Japan,  European  Turkey,  Bulgaria,  Greece, 
Switzerland,  the  Netherlands,  Spain,  Portugal,  Italy, 
France,  Germany,  Austria,  Denmark,  and  Great  Britain, 
they  equal  only  about  the  same  geographical  area  as  the 
United  States  exclusive  of  Alaska  and  our  island  posses- 
sions. In  the  countries  named  the  census  shows  a  popu- 
lation of  more  than  700,000,000  people.  A  few  illustra- 
tions may  be  illuminating  at  this  point. 


76  The  Call  of  the  World 

There  are  only  three  States  west  of  the  Mississippi  as 
small  as  all  New  England. 

California  is  three  fourths  as  large  as  France,  There 
are  forty  millions  of  people  in  France,  only  a  little  more 
than  two  and  a  third  millions  in  California. 

Arizona  is  about  the  same  size  as  Italy,  and  New  Mex- 
ico is  only  slightly  smaller  than  Great  Britain. 

Oregon  has  only  672,765  population  now,  but  if  it  were 
as  densely  populated  as  New  Jersey  there  would  be  thir- 
ty-two millions  of  people  in  Oregon. 

If  the  United  States,  including  Alaska  and  the  island 
possessions,  were  as  densely  populated  as  the  island  of 
Java,  we  would  have  in  this  country  one  and  one-half 
times  the  present  population  of  the  entire  globe,  and  yet 
the  United  States  would  not  then  be  more  densely  popu- 
lated than  Belgium. 

Taking  the  State  of  Texas  as  an  illustration,  if  France 
were  an  island  and  Texas  a  sea,  and  the  island  were  in 
the  midst  of  the  sea,  the  people  on  the  island  would  be 
out  of  sight  of  land  in  every  direction.  Counting  the 
population  of  the  world  as  sixteen  hundred  millions,  if 
all  the  millions  of  Africa,  Asia,  Europe,  South  America 
and  North  America  were  all  in  the  one  State  of  Texas, — 
not  a  man,  woman  or  child  anywhere  else  in  the  world, — 
there  would  be  only  nine  to  the  acre ! 

Sections  of  America  are  not  capable  of  sustaining  a 
large  population,  it  is  true,  but  on  this  topic  we  quote  a 
third  time  from  The  United  States  in  the  Twentieth 
Century: 

'*If  the  dry  lands  of  the  West  account  for  one  third  of 
the  3,000,000  and  more  square  miles  of  the  United  States, 
at  least  four  fifths  of  Australia  and  the  same  proportion 


America's  Position  in  the  World  Battle      77 

of  South  Africa  are  far  more  barren  than  this  arid  zofiel 
three  fourths  of  Canada  is  unfertile,  or  rendered  so  by 
cold;  one  half  of  Argentina  consists  of  steppes  or  semi- 
desert  country ;  and,  finally,  fully  two  thirds  of  the  enor- 
mous Russian  Empire  is  uncultivable,  either  by  lack  of 
heat  or  by  lack  of  rain. 

''More  than  this,  in  respect  to  mineral  wealth,  in  re- 
spect to  water  power,  and  in  respect  to  agricultural  pos- 
sibilities, all  of  the  countries  just  mentioned  are  far  less 
endowed  than  is  the  United  States." 

God  has  made  America  a  giant  in  size  that  America 
may  do  a  giant's  share  in  the  world-wide  propagation  of 
the  Gospel. 

2.  Mineral  resources.  The  United  States  furnishes 
the  world  to-day  with  63  per  cent,  of  its  petroleum. 
Copper  is  indispensable  in  this  electric  age,  and  57 
per  cent,  of  the  world's  supply  comes  from  the  United 
States.  In  the  production  of  coal,  America  leads  the 
world,  and  according  to  the  Statesman's  Year  Book  all 
Europe  has  only  one  fourth  as  much  coal  as  the  United 
States.  The  gold  output  of  the  United  States  is  many 
times  that  of  any  other  country,  except  the  Transvaal  in 
Africa. 

3.  Railroads.  Railroads  are  an  indication  of  wealth 
and  progress  and  power.  Canada  has  more  railroad  mile- 
age than  all  the  continent  of  Africa.  Almost  38  per  cent, 
of  the  total  mileage  is  in  the  United  States ;  or,  putting  it 
in  another  way,  the  United  States  could  duplicate  all  the 
railroad  mileage  of  Asia,  Africa,  South  America,  and 
Australia  and  then  have  enough  left  to  build  a  single 
track  line  three  and  three-fourths  times  around  the  globe ! 
The  United  States  has  six  and  one-half  times  as  many 


78 


The  Call  of  the  World 


miles  of  railroad  as  any  other  country  in  the  world. 
There  are  no  railroads  where  Christ  has  not  gone. 
4.     Wealth.     According  to  the  latest  summary  pre- 


^a//A  o/^^e  ^mted  Stages,  m07m 


■  REAL   AND     PCRSOHAL     PgQpegTY 


185OJ860JM     1S80     1890     mo     f9/0 


pared  by  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  the  Department  of 
Commerce  and  Labor,  the  wealth  of  the  United  States 
equals  42  per  cent,  of  the  total  wealth  of  all  Europe.  In 
1910  the  deposits  in  savings  banks  exceeded  the  amount 


America's  Position  in  the  World  Battle      79 

for  1900  by  sixteen  hundred  and  eighty  millions  of  dol- 
lars. The  depositors  increased  more  than  three  millions 
in  the  same  period  of  time.  The  latest  figures  show  that 
the  people  of  the  United  States  as  a  whole  are  now  sav- 
ing an  average  of  about  nine  million  dollars  a  day.  The 
statistics  of  wealth  as  represented  by  manufactured  prod- 
ucts show  that  our  nearest  competitor  is  Germany,  but 
that  the  United  States  furnishes  millions  of  dollars  more 
of  manufactured  products  annually  than  any  other  coun- 
try. The  trade  of  the  United  States  with  foreign  lands 
and  its  own  island  possessions,  according  to  reports  of 
the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1912,  set  a  high-water 
mark  of  $4,000,000,000. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  growing  wealth  of  a  single 
city,  a  statement  is  in  circulation  that  in  1885,  according 
to  the  city  records,  there  were  only  twenty-eight  million- 
aires in  New  York  City;  now  there  are  more  than  two 
thousand. 

5.  Agricultural  products.  Two  of  the  staple  agricul-, 
tural  products  are  corn  and  wheat.  The  United  States 
had  two  and  four  fifths  times  as  many  acres  of  corn  in 
1910  as  all  the  rest  of  the  world.  According  to  figures 
given  out  by  the  Bureau  of  the  Census  the  cotton  crop  of 
the  United  States  in  1909  was  five  eighths  of  the  total 
grown  in  the  world.  Russia  alone  of  all  the  countries  in 
the  world  grew  a  few  more  bushels  of  wheat  last  year 
than  the  United  States. 

The  value  of  the  farm  products  of  the  United  States 
in  1909,  according  to  the  report  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture,  was  $8,760,000,000.  The  farm  products 
have  considerably  more  than  doubled  in  ten  years,  equal- 
ing in  value  eighteen  times  the  world's  output  of  gold. 


8o  The  Call  of  the  World 

In  commenting  on  these  figures,  a  writer  in  the  Literary 
Digest  gives  the  following  concrete  ilListration  of  what 
they  mean:  If  the  money  were  all  in  twenty-dollar  gold 
pieces,  it  would  make  a  pile  720  miles  high,  and  if  tlie 
gold  pieces  were  laid  on  the  earth  touching  one  another, 
the  value  of  the  farm  products  of  that  one  year  v/ould 
make  a  line  of  twenty-dollar  gold  pieces  reaching  across 
Alaska,  Canada,  the  United  States  and  Mexico  to  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama,  and  there  would  then  be  enough  of 
these  coins  left  to  make  a  line  of  gold  from  New  York 
to  San  Francisco,  and  some  pieces  would  fall  off  into  the 
Pacific  Ocean  before  they  were  all  used!  Even  this 
fabulous  amount  of  wealth  produced  on  the  farms  was 
increased  by  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  millions  of  dol- 
lars in  1910. 

These  few  facts,  startling  as  they  are,  are  only  the  be- 
ginning of  an  exhibit  of  the  prodigality  of  power  cen- 
tering here.  The  moral  and  spiritual  meaning  of  these 
resources  constitutes  a  challenge  to  our  best  civiliza- 
tion. 

God  needs  tremendous  financial  resources  for  the 
work  of  winning  the  world.  Vast  resources  are  needed 
for  the  educational,  evangelistic,  philanthropic,  and  in- 
dustrial work  of  missions.  There  seems  to  be  no  place 
on  earth  where  in  our  time  there  are  such  available  re- 
sources for  this  task  as  here  in  this  land. 

One  of  the  supreme  tests  of  our  civilization  is  the  use 
we  are  making  of  this  God-given  treasure,  for  cash  and 
consecration  should  increase  in  proportionate  ratio.  How 
to  be  rich  and  religious  at  the  same  time  is  one  of  the 
burning  issues  in  our  land  to-day.  The  release  of  a  legiti- 
mate portion  of  this  wealth  for  the  blessings  of  mankind 


America's  Position  in  the  World  Battle      8i 

and  the  refreshing  of  the  thirsty  earth  is  evidently  a  part 
of  the  purpose  of  God.  If  the  riches  of  America  are  to 
be  a  resource  and  not  an  incubus,  a  highway  and  not  a 
terminus,  American  men,  to  whom  God  has  given  the 
abihty  to  get  great  wealth,  must  be  brought  face  to  face 
with  the  challenge  of  the  needy  world  in  order  to  save 
them  from  the  disaster  of  selfishness  and  sin.  God  is  not 
grieved  when  his  men  get  rich,  but  he  is  grieved  when 
riches  are  not  invested  for  the  enrichment  of  the  world. 
It  seems  inconceivable  that  America  could  throw  away 
this  supreme  opportunity  for  service.  ''Napoleonic  ener- 
gies require  an  international  program." 

America  Can  Retain  Her  Place  of  Leadership  in 
THE  Kingdom  of  God  only  by  Developing  Vision 
AND  Consecration   Adequate  to  Her  Task 

It  will  be  well  for  American  Christianity  if  it  learns 
the  eloquent  lessons  which  are  written  on  many  pages  of 
the  world's  history,  telling  of  the  setting  aside  of  na- 
tions and  men  who  have  had  a  great  opportunity  but  have 
failed  to  carry  out  the  divinely  appointed  commission. 

All  the  facts  given  above  emphasize  the  imperative 
necessity  for  greatly  enlarged  home  missionary  effort. 
The  world  battle  cannot  be  won  unless  the  attack  upon 
sin  and  the  defense  of  the  bulwarks  of  righteousness  at 
home  are  aggressive  and  victorious.  The  home  battle 
and  the  world  battle  are  one. 

What  then  is  Americas  share  of  the  world  task? 
How  much  will  be  required  of  money  and  men  if  America 
does  her  duty  to  the  non-Christian  world? 

How  to  determine  a  nation's  share  of  the  world  task 


82  The  Call  of  the  World 

is  a  very  complex  problem,  and  mathematical  statements 
have  many  serious  limitations.  In  the  first  place  it  is  no 
doubt  true  that  whenever  the  Christian  Church  really 
sets  out  seriously  to  obey  Christ's  command  there  will 
be  such  a  pouring  forth  of  the  power  of  the  Spirit  as  will 
upset  all  numerical  computations.  Again,  the  varying 
conditions  in  different  parts  of  the  field  make  any  uni- 
form standard  impossible.  In  parts  of  Africa  and  Asia 
where  the  populations  are  scattered,  perhaps  one  mis- 
sionary to  every  5,000  people  will  be  necessary.  In  other 
fields  a  large  and  sudden  increase  in  missionaries  might 
precipitate  an  anti-missionary  uprising,  which  would 
greatly  retard  the  growth  of  the  Kingdom.  Mission 
boards  are  by  no  means  unanimous  in  judgment  as  to  the 
most  effective  way  to  present  the  appeal.  The  condition 
of  the  native  Church  is  another  factor  which  is  variable  in 
different  lands.  Account  must  be  taken  of  quality  as  well 
as  quantity  in  the  work. 

Since  this  is  a  spiritual  enterprise  and  dependent  upon 
superhuman  forces,  no  arithmetical  statement  can  be 
considered  as  authoritative  and  final.  The  great  re- 
sources in  this  task  are  the  spiritual  energies  which  God 
alone  can  give.  But  the  following  study  at  least  has  the 
virtue  of  being  a  definite  and  concrete  statement  of  some 
factors  in  the  problem.  Men  are  thinking  and  acting  in 
the  realm  of  the  concrete  in  business  and  professional 
life.  The  call  of  God  is  not  less  sacred  when  it  is  stated 
in  terms  of  every-day  life  which  grip  and  hold  the  mind 
and  conscience.  The  task  may  be  accomplished  much 
more  rapidly  than  now  seems  probable.  That  is  clearly 
a  possible  thing  with  God.  But  stating  the  best  judgment 
of  some  of  the  most  spiritually-minded  men  in  the  con- 


America's  Position  in  the  World  Battle      83 

flict  as  to  the  visible  resources  needed  is  not  limiting 
God. 

Therefore  as  a  temporary  estimate,  leaving  the  way 
open  for  adjustment  and  reconstruction  as  new  light  is 
thrown  on  the  problem,  the  following  statement  may  be 
helpful. 

It  is  the  conviction  of  many  that  the  smallest  force  of 
missionaries  which  can  make  possible  the  evangelization 
of  the  world  in  this  generation  is  one  for  every  25,000  of 
the  population. 

Looking  at  North  America's  share  of  this  world  task, 
the  following  are  factors  in  the  problem. 

1.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  North  America  is  now  fur- 
nishing nearly  one  half  of  the  Protestant  foreign  mis- 
sionaries and  about  one  half  of  the  foreign  mission 
contributions,  and  also  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  re- 
sources of  North  America  are  greater  than  those  of 
many  other  parts  of  Christendom,  it  is  probably  fair  to 
estimate  North  America's  share  of  the  non-Christian 
world  as  500,000,000  people.  This  includes  the  portion 
of  the  world  now  being  evangelized  by  American  mis- 
sionaries on  the  field. 

2.  Toward  the  evangelization  of  this  vast  number  of 
people  there  are  now  abroad,  representing  the  churches 
of  the  United  States  and  Canada,  approximately  6,000 
single  missionaries  and  missionary  families.  On  the  basis 
given  above  these  6,000  missionaries  can  evangelize  one 
hundred  and  fifty  millions  in  this  generation.  This  leaves^ 
three  hundred  and  fifty  millions  still  to  be  provided  for' 
or  seven  tenths  of  the  whole  number  for  whom  America 
is  responsible. 

3.  In  view  of  the  above  facts,  in  order  to  occupy  their 


84  The  Call  of  the  World 

field  the  churches  of  North  America  will  therefore  need 
to  multiply  by  two  and  one  third  their  output,  that  is,  to 
send  out  and  maintain  14,000  additional  missionaries, 
making  20,000  in  all. 

4.  For  the  support  of  the  missionaries  from  the 
United  States  and  Canada  now  on  the  field  the  Mission 
Boards  spent  in  1910  about  thirteen  millions  of  dollars,  or 
an  average  of  a  little  more  than  $2,000  per  missionary. 
This  does  not  mean  that  each  missionary  received  a 
$2,000  salary.  Missionary  salaries  average  only  half  or 
less  than  half  of  that  amount.  The  balance  was  spent  for 
all  other  expenses  such  as  traveling,  equipment,  etc.  If 
we  accept  this  amount  as  approximately  what  will  be 
needed  for  each  new  missionary  sent  out,  the  United 
States  and  Canada  must  increase  the  amount  of  money 
given  to  about  forty-three  millions  of  dollars  annually. 

Can  America  furnish  the  men  and  the  money? 

There  are  about  twenty-two  millions  of  Protestant 
church-members  in  the  United  States  and  nine  hundred 
thousand  in  Canada,  about  twenty-three  millions  in  all. 
In  order  to  secure  the  required  number  of  missionaries 
American  churches  must  send  out  and  maintain  about 
one  in  1,150  of  the  membership.  This  is  clearly  possible 
and  has  been  largely  exceeded  by  the  Moravian  Church. 
This  leaves  1,149  out  of  every  1,150  church-members  to 
carry  on  the  work  on  this  continent. 

A  majority  of  the  volunteers  will  come  from  the  col- 
leges and  theological  seminaries.  There  were  195,724 
students  in  these  institutions  in  the  United  States  in  1909- 
10.  It  would  therefore  take  about  one  in  fourteen  of 
these  students  to  furnish  the  14,000  workers  required 
to  secure  America's  share  of  the  missionaries. 


America's  Position  in  the  World  Battle      85 

As  far  as  the  financial  problem  for  America  is  con- 
cerned the  support  of  14,000  new  missionaries  involves 
increasing  our  annual  offerings  from  about  $13,000,000  a 
year  to  approximately  $43,000,000  a  year.  When  reduced 
to  actual  figures  the  average  per  church-member  is  piti- 
fully small.  To  secure  the  entire  budget  for  20,000  mis- 
sionaries would  require  an  average  gift  from  the  twenty- 
three  millions  of  church-members  in  the  United  States 
and  Canada  of  a  little  less  than  two  dollars  per  year  or 
two  postage  stamps  a  week !  And  this  for  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  world !  Many  thousands  of  Christians  and 
hundreds  of  churches  should  go  far  beyond  this  average. 

"Shall  America  Evangelize  Her  Share  of  the  World?" 
This  is  the  ringing  challenge  flung  down  to  American 
Christianity. 

O  America,  America,  stretching  between  the  two  great 
seas,  in  whose  heart  flows  the  rich  blood  of  many  nations, 
into  whose  mountain  safes  God  has  put  riches  of  fabulous 
amount,  in  whose  plains  the  Almighty  has  planted  the 
magic  genius  that  blossoms  into  harvests  with  which  to 
feed  the  hungry  multitudes  of  earth,  nursed  by  Puritan 
and  Pilgrim,  defended  by  patriot  and  missionary,  guided 
by  the  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  of  fire  by  night,  sancti- 
fied by  a  faith  as  pure  as  looks  up  to  heaven  from  any 
land,  O  America,  let  thy  Master  make  thee  a  Savior  of 
the  nations ;  let  thy  God  flood  thee  with  a  resistless  pas- 
sion for  conquest;  let  thy  Father  lead  thee  over  moun- 
tains and  seas,  through  fire  and  flood,  through  sickness 
and  pain,  out  to  that  great  hour  when  all  men  shall  hear 
the  call  of  Christ,  and  the  last  lonely  soul  shall  see  the 
uplifted  cross,  and  the  whole  round  world  be  bound  back 
to  the  heart  of  God ! 


86                     The  Call  of  the  World  \ 

BOOKS  FOR  FURTHER  READING  ] 

j 

Love,  J.  F.,  The  Mission  of  Our  Nation.     Fleming  H.  I 

Revell  Co.,  158  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York.    $1.25.  | 
Coolidge,  The  United  States  as  a  World  Power.    Mac- 

millan  Company,  64  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York.    $2.00.  j 

Van  Dyke,  Henry,  The  Spirit  of  America.     Fleming  H.  : 

Revell  Co.,  158  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York.    $0.50. 

Reinsch,  World  Politics.    Macmillan  Company,  64  Fifth  : 

Avenue,  New  York.    $1.25.  ! 

Stead,  W.  T.,  The  Americanization  of  the  World.    Hor-  | 

ace  Markley.     New  York,  $1.00.  I 


CHAPTER  IV 
A    MAN'S    RESPONSE    TO    THE    WORLD    APPEAL 

The  efficiency  expert  is  a  familiar  figure  in  modern 
big  business.  His  function  is  the  checking  up  and 
scaHng  up  of  commercial  enterprises.  His  one  study  is 
business  organization,  methods,  management  and  out- 
put. His  life  is  built  around  such  problems  as  these: 
Are  the  capital  and  force  at  work  in  this  business  bring- 
ing adequate  returns?  What  combinations  are  possible 
so  as  to  reduce  expenses  without  reducing  returns?  Is 
there  waste?  Is  there  duplication  of  effort?  Is  the 
product  satisfactory  as  to  quality  and  quantity?  Is 
there  anything  the  matter  with  the  organization?  Has 
the  business  too  many  officials  or  too  few?  Are  there 
unimproved  opportunities?  Is  the  advertising  all  that 
could  be  desired?  In  short,  his  function  is  to  study 
business  with  a  view  to  securing  a  maximum  of  effi- 
ciency with  the  expenditure  of  a  minimum  of  time,  force 
and  capital. 

Why  not  apply  the  same  methods  and  skill  and  in- 
tense application  to  the  work  of  the  kingdom  of  Jesus 
Christ?  There  is  no  business  in  the  world  comparable 
with  it  from  the  standpoint  of  immensity — there  are 
hundreds  of  millions  of  people  involved,  and  not  a  foot 
of  soil  where  a  man  lives  is  excluded  from  the  plan  of 
Jesus  Christ.     There  is  no  enterprise  which  promises 

87 


88  The  Call  of  the  World 

such  inspiring  and  enduring  returns  from  the  invest- 
ment. Its  complexity  and  baffling  difficulties  are  a  chal- 
lenge to  the  passion  for  mastery  that  is  central  in  every 
real  man.  Christian  men  might  well  ponder  deeply 
and  then  take  as  a  guiding  principle  in  life  that  sentence 
of  the  late  Mr.  J.  H.  Converse  of  the  Baldwin  Locomo-v 
tive  Works,  "When  Christian  business  men  devote  the 
same  skill  and  energy  to  Christian  work  which  they 
now  give  to  their  private  business  concerns  the  propo- 
sition to  evangelize  the  world  in  this  generation  will  be 
no  longer  a  dream." 

It  may  be  well  to  approach  the  study  of  this  final 
topic  in  the  spirit  of  the  favorite  sayings  of  two  famous 
modern  generals.  One  of  the  principles  of  a  great 
German  tactician  was,  "First  ponder,  then  dare."  The 
motto  of  another  well-known  general  was,  "Know  your 
geography  and  fight  your  men."  It  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  that  there  be  developed  in  the  Church  of 
Christ  such  a  militant  temper  as  shall  make  it  capable 
of  carrying  out  the  plans  of  Christ  to  naturalize  Chris- 
tianity in  every  land.  It  is  an  urgent  necessity  that 
Christ's  soldiers  ponder  world  conditions  in  order  that 
they  may  release  their  lives  for  the  carrying  of  the 
gospel  to  the  world.  Men  must  know  the  geography 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  if  they  are  to  apply  the  princi- 
ples of  strategy  to  the  carrying  out  of  the  last  command 
of  Christ. 

Some  of  the  outstanding  facts  related  to  the  evan- 
gelization of  the  world  have  passed  in  review  in 
the  preceding  chapters.  The  time  for  action  has  come. 
What  is  needed  now  is  not  more  rhetoric  but  more 
reality  of  conviction;  not  more  facts,  but  deeper  pur- 


A  Man's  Response  to  the  World  Appeal      89 

pose.  The  crucial  question  in  this  whole  discussion  is 
how  every  man  may  relate  himself  in  a  practical  way 
to  the  winning  of  the  world  to  Christ.  The  carrying  of 
the  gospel  to  all  the  world  is  every  man's  opportunity. 
There  is  no  monopoly  of  a  chance  to  serve  in  this  war. 
This  is  the  one  opportunity  which  makes  it  possible  for 
every  life  to  influence  the  whole  world.  What  then 
are  the  moral  and  spiritual  demands  which  a  world 
like  ours  makes  upon  men? 

The  answer  to  this  fundamental  question  takes  us 
back  to  the  principles  stated  by  our  Lord.  How  did 
he  expect  men  to  relate  themselves  to  this,  his  world 
task?  What  were  his  missionary  commands?  Stated 
in  their  logical  and  chronological  order  they  are : 

"Lift  up  your  eyes  and  behold  the  fields !" — Study. 

'Tray  ye  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  that  he  thrust  forth 
laborers  into  his  harvest." — Intercede. 

"Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel." — 
Give  and  Serve. 

Reduced  to  their  simplest  terms  then,  the  missionary 
principles  of  Jesus  demand  four  things  of  men.     If  men 
relate  themselves  to  the  whole  task  of  our  Lord  a  four- 
fold program,  in  which  every  man  will  have  a  share, 
must  be  carried  out  in  every  church. 
A  program  of  Education. 
A  program  of   Finance. 
A  program  of   Service. 
A  program  of  Intercession. 

It  is  one  of  the  tragedies  of  language  that  the  great 
phrases  get  frayed  out  with  constant  use.  They  lose 
their  grip  and  their  power  to  stimulate  thought  and 
action.     For  the  sake  of  variety  these  familiar  ways  of 


90 


The  Call  of  the  World 


expressing   the  missionary   obligation    are    stated   in   a 
different  way,  yet  so  as  to  retain  the  fundamental  prin-    I 
ciples   enunciated   above.     The   world   to-day   demands   | 
of  men:  ] 

Widening  Horizon — Study  j 

Unwitpi holding  Consecration — Money  and  Serv-  i 

ICE  i 

Unending  Prayer — Intercession  i 

j 
I.    Widening  Horizon  ■ 

The  hour  in  which  we  live  makes  it  imperative  that  ; 
men  study  world  conditions.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  j 
keep  pace  with  changing  conditions  and  new  opportuni-  I 
ties  unless  one  is  constantly  in  touch  with  the  progress  i 
of  the  Kingdom  throughout  the  world.  \ 

There  are  at  least  seven  good  reasons  why  every  man  i 
should  plan  to  devote  time  to  the  study  of  missions.  ' 

1.  Christ's    Missionary    Program    Includes    Study 
(John,  iv.   35). — If  a  man  cannot  be  thoroughly  loyal   j 

\to  Christ  without  active  participation  in  the  spread  of  the  j 
gospel  in  the  world,  it  is  equally  true  that  a  man  is  dis-  , 
obedient  to  the  missionary  call  of  Christ  who  does  not  i 
study  missions.  Information  is  essential  to  intercession  ; 
and  intercession  is  the  greatest  human  missionary  force.  : 
"Facts  are  the  fuel  with  which  missionary  fervor  is  fired  ' 
and  fed."  I 

2.  Missions  Is  the  Greatest  Living  Issue. — There  | 
is  no  question  before  the  world  to-day  which  involves  i 
such  large  forces,  such  multitudes  of  people  and  with  j 
such  tremendous  issues.  There  is  nothing  greater  to  ^ 
which  a  man  may  relate  his  life.  • 


A  Man's  Response  to  the  World  Appeal      91 

3.  The  Study  of  Missions  Is  the  Only  Possible 
Way  to   Keep  in  Touch  with  World  Progress. — In 

order  to  read  the  magazines  and  newspapers  intelligently 
constant  study  of  missions  is  necessary.  Progress  in  our 
time  is  largely  along  Christian  lines.  The  progress  of 
the  world  is  only  another  way  of  saying  that  Christ  is 
increasingly  possessing  the  world. 

4.  Men  Cannot  Be  Quahfied  for  Leadership  With- 
out Study. — There  never  was  such  an  urgent  call  for 
leaders  or  such  unlimited  opportunities  for  the  invest- 
ment of  talents  as  in  our  day  in  this  greatest  of  move- 
ments. Real  leadership  is  trained  leadership  and  train- 
ing involves  study. 

5.  World  Conquest  Is  the  Biggest  Business  Prop- 
osition Before  the  Church. — The  enterprise  has  in  it 
all  the  elements  that  go  to  make  big  business  so  fascinat- 
ing to  strong  men.  Here  is  an  opportunity  not  only  of 
displaying  the  business  talents  which  men  have,  but  to 
display  them  in  an  enterprise  which  brings  the  most  satis- 
factory returns  to  men  in  the  way  of  the  enrichment  of 
their  own  lives.  The  keenest  sagacity  of  business  men  is 
sorely  needed  in  all  the  councils  of  the  Church  to-day,  and 
in  no  place  is  the  need  more  urgent  than  in  the  service  of 
world-wide  missions. 

6.  Investigation  Will  Suggest  Definite  and  Prac- 
tical Missionary  Activities. — It  is  not  enough  to  be  sen- 
timentally interested  in  missions.  That  day  has  gone  by. 
The  calls  of  our  time  demand  definite  and  practical  plans 
and  methods  and  there  are  no  members  of  the  church 
who  are  in  a  position  to  render  larger  service  than  the 
business  men. 

7.  It  Furnishes  Intellectual  Outlook  and  Spiritual 


92  The  Call  of  the  World 

Uplook. — One  of  the  great  drawbacks  of  modern 
business  life  is  that  the  horizon  is  narrowed  and  life  made 
provincial.  There  is  but  little  in  ordinary  business  to 
furnish  spiritual  stimulus.  A  church  service  one  day  in 
seven  is  not  sufficient  to  cause  the  springs  of  spiritual 
power  in  a  man's  life  to  burst  forth  into  activity.  Here 
is  a  cause  which  brings  the  keenest  intellectual  and 
spiritual  delight.  The  study  of  missions  will  give  men  a 
greatly  enriched  Bible  because  they  will  discover  that  it 
is  the  great  missionary  Book.  This  fact  and  the  conse- 
quent intellectual  and  spiritual  stimulus  justify  any 
amount  of  time  spent  in  studying  the  program  of  Christ. 
Studying  the  Church. — The  Word,  the  World,  and 
the  Workman — these  are  both  the  sources  of  informa- 
tion and  the  objects  for  study.  Not  only  must  modern 
men  study  the  world  and  the  Word,  but  also  the  Church 
which  is  God's  appointed  instrument  for  achieving  his 
world  purposes.  One  of  the  first  problems  confronting 
a  man  who  desires  to  relate  himself  to  the  world  program 
is  the  study  of  his  own  local  church  to  see  how  he  can 
make  possible  the  relating  of  the  whole  church  to  the 
whole  task  in  such  a  way  as  to  release  the  full  power  of 
the  whole  constituency.  This  will  necessitate  careful 
study  of  the  present  missionary  organization  and  life  of 
the  church  to  which  each  man  belongs.  He  is  now  de- 
termined to  become  an  efficiency  expert  in  the  matter  of 
the  world-wide  propagation  of  Christianity.  He  will  ap- 
ply the  same  principles  to  this  study  that  he  applies  to  his 
daily  business.  In  some  cases  it  will  be  discovered  that 
there  is  very  little  efficient  organization,  or  if  there  are 
organizations,  they  will  be  found  to  be  sadly  lacking  in  a 
big  and  definite  objective.    They  have  been  content  if  they 


A  Man's  Response  to  the  World  Appeal      93 

have  done  as  well  this  year  as  they  did  last,  or  if  their 
record  compares  favorably  with  the  record  of  a  neigh- 
boring church.  In  other  words,  their  achievements  have 
been  measured  by  some  standard  which  has  seemed  a 
possible  goal  at  the  time  rather  than  by  the  great  and 
final  aim  of  getting  the  whole  task  of  Christ  accom- 
plished. 

It  is  also  often  true  that  the  church  is  not  organized  to 
reach  the  entire  community  in  which  it  lives.  One  of  the 
first  duties  will  therefore  be  to  relate  the  church  in  a  vital 
way  to  the  entire  community.  The  church  is  not  a  field 
but  a  force  with  which  to  work  the  field.  The  field  is  the 
community,  the  state,  the  world! 

In  some  cases  it  will  be  necessary  to  create  new  ma- 
chinery for  this  work.  However,  it  is  much  wiser  to  use 
the  existing  organizations  of  the  church  if  they  can  be 
made  efifective. 

The  Missionary  Committee. — The  one  type  of  or- 
ganization in  the  local  church  which  has  met  with  most 
general  approval  by  Christian  leaders  is  what  is  called 
'The  Church  Missionary  Committee."  Even  where  sev- 
eral distinct  missionary  organizations  exist  in  the  local 
church  there  is  still  urgent  need  for  this  committee  for 
two  very  important  reasons. 

I.  It  unifies  the  missionary  activities  of  the  church. 
The  most  fruitful  way  of  organizing  the  committee  is  to 
have  representatives  of  all  the  existing  missionary  organi- 
zations upon  it.  The  pastor  should  by  all  means  be  a 
member  of  this  committee  but  ordinarily  not  the  chair- 
man. The  committee  should  always  be  definitely  ap- 
pointed or  at  least  confirmed  by  the  official  body  of  the 
congregation.    By  thus  bringing  together  all  the  leaders 


94 


The  CaXC  of  the  World 


of  the  various  activities,  a  unified  and  well-articulated 
missionary  program  is  made  possible. 

2.     The   missionary  committee  represents   the  entire 
congregation.     In  the  past  it  has  been  true  that  only  a 

THE  CHURCH  MISSIONARY  COMMITTEE 

ITS  FIELDS        (inner  CIRCLE) 
ITS  FUNCTIONS  (oUTER  CIRCLE) 


CHURCH  . 
MISSIONARY 
COMMITTEE 


"ONAaY  ^' 


^■^^^RiiiiS^ 


fraction  of  the  congregation  has  been  enlisted  in  definite 
missionary  activities.  Only  small  groups  have  been  or- 
ganized for  missionary  service.  The  men  especially  have 
been  unreached.  Obviously  the  first  move  to  make  if  the 
church  is  to  meet  its  full  missionary  responsibility  is  to 


A  Man's  Response  to  the  World  Appeal      95 

plan  to  enlist  the  whole  constituency.  This  committee 
should  have  enough  meetings  to  plan  a  comprehen- 
sive policy  for  the  entire  congregation,  including  all 
the  lines  of  activity  indicated  in  the  missionary  com- 
mands of  Christ  to  which  reference  has  been  made,  also 
to  check  up  results.  A  meeting  for  the  whole  congrega- 
tion should  be  held  each  year  at  which  reports  are  made 
and  plans  projected  for  the  succeeding  season.  The  pam- 
phlets on  the  Missionary  Committee  and  its  work  listed  at 
the  end  of  this  chapter  are  earnestly  recommended  to  the 
thoughtful  study  of  every  man  who  desires  to  relate  him- 
self effectively  to  the  problem  of  making  a  missionary 
church.  The  policy  outlined  by  the  committee,  after  a 
study  of  these  pamphlets,  should  be  adopted  by  the  offi- 
cial body,  presented  to  the  whole  congregation,  and  ex- 
plained at  a  regular  church  service.  To  make  the  pre- 
ceding suggestions  effective  calls  for  a  high  type  of  abil- 
ity and  the  conspicuous  and  continuous  application  of  all 
those  traits  of  character  which  have  been  developed  in  the 
business  and  professional  men  of  the  church. 

II.    Unwithholding  Consecration 

Your  money  and  your  life !  What  greater  gifts  can  a 
man  bring?  God  cares  more  for  men  than  for  anything 
else  in  the  world.  It  is  life  laid  down  for  him  which 
gives  joy  to  the  heart  of  the  sacrificial  Savior.  But  money 
represents  life — nay,  it  is  coined  personality.  Millions  of 
money  beyond  any  previous  gift  will  be  needed  before 
the  world  can  be  won.  Here  is  the  hardest  personal  bat- 
tle for  a  multitude  of  men.  After  the  personal  battle  is 
over  others  must  be  persuaded  by  the  victor  to  share  in 
the  enterprise. 


96 


The  Call  of  the  World 


A  Plan  for  the  Organization  and  Work 
of  the  Church  Missionary  Committee 

FIELDS  OF  WORK 


A  Man's  Response  to  the  World  Appeal     97 

As  a  result  of  experience  in  thousands  of  churches  in 
all  parts  of  the  United  States  and  Canada  it  has  been 
demonstrated  that  the  Every  Member  Canvass  is  the  most 
effective  financial  method  now  being  employed  by  the 
churches.  No  program  of  finance  in  the  local  church  is 
complete  without  an  annual  Every  Member  Canvass. 

The  adoption  of  sound  principles  of  stewardship,  and 
life  brought  into  deepening  harmony  with  those  principles 
is  a  part  of  the  price  of  victory  in  this  war.  Such  prin- 
ciples are  essential  to  the  development  and  enrichment  of 
character  and  necessary  if  there  is  to  be  proper  expres- 
sion of  character  in  doing  the  will  of  God. 

There  is  hardly  any  outstanding  question  in  the  Church 
about  which  there  is  such  confusion  and  therefore  so 
nerveless  an  appeal  as  the  subject  of  stewardship.  It  is 
a  difficult  question  and  an  unpopular  one.  Inadequate 
thinking  is  very  common  and  practise  is  even  more  in- 
adequate than  thinking  both  in  pulpit  and  in  pew. 

The  fact  that  little  constructive  attention  is  being  given 
to  this  subject  by  the  leaders  of  the  Church  was  well 
illustrated  at  one  of  the  Silver  Bay  Conferences  a  few 
years  ago.  In  a  group  of  about  seventy-five  men,  where 
the  subject  was  under  discussion,  the  leader  of  the  con- 
ference asked  how  many  of  the  men  had  ever  read  a 
book  on  Christian  stewardship.  Not  more  than  one  half 
of  the  men  raised  their  hands.  When  asked  how  many 
had  read  a  book  on  tithing  not  more  than  one  fifth  re- 
sponded in  the  affirmative.  If  such  a  representative  group 
of  picked  leaders  is  uninformed  or  uninterested  in  so  vital 
a  matter,  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Church  must  surely  need 
their  attention  powerfully  called  to  the  subject. 

The  Bible  gives  a  much  larger  place  to  the  matter 


98  The  Call  of  the  World 

of  giving'  than  is  generally  supposed.  Some  one  who 
claims  to  have  counted  the  Scripture  references  says  that 
giving  is  mentioned  1,565  times  in  the  Bible.  One  of  the 
significant  things  about  the  parables  of  Jesus  is  that  thir- 
teen of  the  twenty-nine  have  some  reference  to  property. 

A  group  of  men  recently  worked  out  a  statement  of 
the  principles  of  stewardship  and  the  methods  of  apply- 
ing these  principles  to  life.  These  principles  are  worthy 
of  careful  study  and  wide  adoption.  In  May,  1912,  they 
were  adopted  by  the  governing  body  of  one  of  the  de- 
nominations as  the  guiding  principles  and  methods  for 
that  church. 

Principles  of  Stewardship. — God  is  the  Giver  and  is 
the  Absolute  Owner  of  All  things. — This  invincible  con- 
viction lies  at  the  base  of  all  correct  thinking  about  stew- 
ardship. To  commit  oneself  to  the  inspiring  idea  that 
God  is  the  owner  of  all  things  is  to  take  all  bitterness 
and  drudgery  out  of  stewardship.  When  a  man  real- 
izes what  kind  of  a  God  he  has,  that  he  purposes  his 
best  for  every  man  and  wants  him  to  know  how  rich 
and  powerful  and  loving  his  Father  is,  the  practise  of 
stewardship  becomes  one  of  the  enriching  joys  of  life. 
The  base-line  of  all  geographical  measurements  is  the 
level  of  the  sea ;  prairies  or  mountains  or  canyons  are  all 
measured  from  this  same  base-line.  It  is  a  unit  of 
measure.  Likewise  the  ownership  of  God  is  the  base- 
line for  all  measurements  of  truth  about  property.  Hav- 
ing laid  down  and  accepted  this  fundamental  proposi- 
tion that  God  is  the  owner  of  all  there  follows  another 
truth  or  corollary,  namely, 

Under  grace  man  is  a  steivard,  and  the  stezuard  holds 
and  administers  that  zvhich  he  has  as  a  sacred  trust. 


A  Man's  Response  to  the  World  Appeal      99 

Life  is  a  trust,  not  a  possession.  We  are  stewards  of 
money,  not  creators.  Receiving  a  trust  and  rendering  an 
account  are  inseparable.  Responsibility  and  accounta- 
bility are  twin  brothers. 

God's  oztmership  and  man's  steivardship  are  best  evi- 
denced by  the  systematic  application  of  a  portion  of  in- 
come to  the  advancement  of  the  Kingdom.  Giving  should 
be  regular.  All  educational  processes  are  made  effective 
by  continuous  repetition.  The  needs  of  the  work  are 
also  regular  and  therefore  call  for  regular  contribu- 
tions. This  application  of  a  portion  of  income  should 
be  stated.  It  is  a  definite  transaction  with  a  real  per- 
sonal God.  It  involves  amounts,  totals  and  increments. 
It  should  be  worshipful,  remembering  who  He  is  to 
whom  we  bring  the  returns  of  our  labor,  and  in  order 
that  there  may  be  the  largest  blessing  every  offering 
should  be  an  act  of  worship.  It  should  be  sacrificial, 
bearing  in  mind  that  no  fraction  set  aside  can  exhaust 
our  responsibility  or  express  the  depth  of  true  love  for 
God. 

Biblical  and  extra^Biblical  history  point  to  the  setting 
aside  of  the  tenth  of  the  income  as  a  minimum,  and  in- 
dicate a  divine  sanction  of  the  practise  and  the  amount. 
The  tenth  and  Beyond  is  the  Bible  rule !  The  Old  Testa- 
ment emphasis  is  on  the  Tithe,  the  New  Testament  em- 
phasis is  on  The  Beyond.  The  Old  Testament  asks  a 
tenth,  the  New  Testament  demands  less  but  expects 
more.  The  one  tenth  tests  our  obedience,  the  nine  tenths 
tests  our  consecration.  The  Old  Testament  principle  is, 
'The  tithe  is  the  Lord's."  The  New  Testament  princi- 
ple is,  "He  that  forsaketh  not  all  that  he  hath  cannot  be 
my  disciple." 


100  The  Call  of  the  World 

If  the  adoption  of  any  principles  of  stewardship  are 
to  be  adequate,  every  man  must  finally  go  the  whole 
length  as  expressed  in  the  words  of  Jesus  just  stated. 
The  sooner  this  is  done  the  better,  but  the  full  concep- 
tion of  stewardship  breaks  into  life  gradually  with  most 
men  and  a  large  majority  begin  by  setting  aside  a  small 
proportion  of  income.  The  adoption  of  a  regulative 
principle,  even  though  inadequate  at  first,  is  a  powerful 
spiritual  force  in  a  man's  life.  When  the  practise  of 
systematic  and  proportionate  giving  is  begun,  the  first 
important  step  is  taken  which  often  leads  to  complete 
devotion  to  God. 

There  should  he  careful,  intelligent,  personal,  and 
prayerful  consideration  of  the  uses  to  he  made  of  the 
money  thus  regularly  set  aside.  This  zmll  require  study 
not  only  of  the  local  situation,  but  also  of  the  missionary 
and  benevolent  zvork  of  the  Church.  This  principle  pro- 
vides for  a  thorough-going  educational  process  and  is 
indispensable  if  the  Church  is  to  improve  her  great  op- 
portunity. Individuals,  churches,  nations  cannot  come  to 
the  highest  efficiency  without  recognizing  and  accepting 
their  world  responsibility. 

Consistent  use  of  the  balance  of  the  income  not  set 
aside.  All  the  preceding  principles  are  undermined  if  a 
man  does  not  adopt  this  last  principle  as  a  safeguard. 
It  pries  down  deep  into  men's  lives  and  uncovers  their 
secret  motives.  If  men  are  to  have  an  adequate  pro- 
gram of  stewardship,  it  must  be  adequate  educationally, 
spiritually,  and  financially.  It  is  believed  that  the  six 
principles  stated  are  adequate,  in  the  sense  just  described, 
because : 

I.  These  principles  are  taught  in  the  Bible.    They  are 


A  Man's  Response  to  the  World  Appeal    lor 

a  summary  of  the  total  message  of  the  Scriptures  on  the 
subject  and  especially  of  the  essence  of  the  teachings  of 
Jesus. 

2.  The  testimony  of  history,  both  Scriptural  and  extra 
Biblical  history,  gives  sanction  to  the  principles  stated 
and  the  amount  set  aside,  always  remembering  that  the 
New  Testament  emphasizes  The  Beyond. 

3.  These  principles  are  accepted  because  of  their  ef- 
fect on  character.  No  life  can  grow  rich  and  strong 
without  increasing  giving.  God  is  much  more  interested 
in  the  making  of  a  man  than  he  is  in  the  making  of 
money  and  the  adoption  of  sound  principles  of  steward- 
ship is  vital  to  Christian  character. 

4.  The  adoption  of  these  principles  by  Christians  gen- 
erally would  meet  the  practical  needs  of  our  time  for 
the  spread  of  Christianity  throughout  the  world  so  far 
as  money  can  ever  meet  the  needs  of  mankind. 

Methods  for  the  Application  of  These  Principles 
to  the  Life  of  the  Individual  Christian. — The  Actual 
or  Constructive  Separation  of  the  Proportion  of  Income 
which  complies  with  the  foregoing  principles.  This  does 
four  things : 

1.  It  preserves  the  integrity  of  the  proportion  set  aside 
and  guards  against  the  evil  of  only  estimating  what  is 
due. 

2.  It  is  a  concrete  and  vital  expression  of  the  principle. 
Mere  mental  assent  to  a  principle  without  practical  ex- 
pression is  deadly  to  the  spiritual  life. 

3.  It  provides  regularly  for  the  regular  needs  of  the 
Kingdom. 

4.  It  is  the  best  antidote  to  selfishness. 

A  pledge  in  writing,  in  advance,  of  the  amounts  to  he 


102  The  Call  of  the  World 

applied  to  the  regular  work  of  the  Church  (current  ex- 
penses, missions,  and  benevolences).  These  pledges 
should  ordinarily  be  considerably  less  than  the  whole 
amount  to  be  devoted  during  the  year. 

A  zueekly  payment  of  the  amount  so  subscribed,  de- 
posited as  an  act  of  zwrship  at  a  public  service. 

Payments  from  time  to  time,  out  of  the  sums  set  aside, 
but  not  previously  pledged,  to  special  causes  as  may  be 
desired. 

The  plan  of  keeping  a  separate  ''Lord's  Treasury"  is 
recommended  for  those  ivho  cannot  attend  the  services 
of  the  Church. 

Free-will  or  thank-offerings. 

This  method  is  a  safety  valve  for  those  whose  income 
is  growing  and  who  can  easily  afford  to  give  large  sums 
in  addition  to  their  regular  offerings.  God  expects  cash 
and  consecration,  gold  and  goodness,  riches  and  right- 
eousness to  increase  together. 

"Give,  give,  be  always  giving, 

Who  gives  not  is  not  living, 

The  more  you  give 

The  more  you  live. 

Give  strength,  give  thought,  give  deeds,  give  self, 

Give  love,  give  tears  and  give  thyself, 

Give,  give,  be  always  giving. 

Who  gives  not  is  not  living. 

The  more  you  give,  the  more  you  live." 

The  propagation  of  the  principles  and  methods  of 
stewardship  is  an  important  part  of  the  program  of 
every  individual  Christian  and  of  the  Church  Missionary 
Committee.  Thorough  agitation  on  the  subject  should 
always  precede  the  annual  every-member  canvass.    Many 


A  Man's  Response  to  the  World  Appeal    103 

i 
churches  have  received  unprecedented  spiritual  blessings 
because  of  the  adoption  and  practise  of  higher  standards 
of  giving.  Finally,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the 
missionary  appeal  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  motives 
to  stewardship.  The  appeal  for  the  two  should  go  to- 
gether. 

III.     Unending  Prayer 

The  sovereign  summons  to  men  is  the  summons  to 
prayer.  It  is  a  call  to  use  the  great  unused  human  re- 
source of  power.  It  is  a  call  to  every  man  to  walk  with 
the  tread  of  a  giant  "an  open  but  unfrequented  path  to 
immortality."  Other  lesser  calls  must  die  out  in  us  if 
the  present  spiritual  world  crisis  is  to  be  met.  Practical 
men  of  business  say  that  this  is  the  work  of  the  minister 
or  the  missionary,  but  Christ's  call  to  prayer  was  not  lim- 
ited to  any  group  of  individuals  or  to  a  special  section 
of  the  Church.  The  men  of  our  time  are  discovering  that 
they  have  a  wealth  of  talent  of  which  they  did  not 
dream, — to  bring  things  to  pass  by  prayer.  Intercession 
has  ever  been  what  Arthur  Smith  calls  'The  deeply 
buried  talent." 

Let  us  in  the  beginning  frankly  face  the  fact  that  there 
is  no  call  which  involves  more  of  unwithholding  consecra- 
tion than  the  life  of  intercession.  There  is  no  service 
which  demands  so  much  of  a  man,  which  digs  down  so 
deep  into  his  life,  which  floods  with  such  a  searching 
light  all  the  methods  and  principles  by  which  men  govern 
their  lives. 

On  the  other  hand  let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  there 
is  no  human  means  of  releasing  such  measureless  forces 
among  mankind.    We  are  in  the  midst  of  a  spiritual  con- 


104  The  Call  of  the  World  ■ 

flict,  and  prayer  is  the  determining  factor  in  that  con-  > 

ilict.    This  involves  not  simply  a  prayer  for  ourselves  in  ; 

a  few  hurried  sentences  at  night,  w^hen  too  tired  to  re-  : 

member  what  has  been  prayed  for  when  the  words  are  | 

said,  not  a  few  fragments  of  time  given  to  this  most  im-  j 

portant  occupation,  but  prayer,  central  in  life,  having  a  I 

clear  space  in  which  to  live  and  breathe  and  yet  not  con-  j 

fined  to  times  and  seasons  but  mingling  with  the  whole  \ 

of  life.     Sadly  it  must  be  confessed  that  intercession  is  ' 
not  yet  the  passion  of  our  lives. 

Prayer  gives  quiet  confidence  that  things  really  happen  '\ 
when  men  pray.    It  is  as  vital  as  muscular  force,  as  real  i 
as  electricity.     It  wrenches  men  loose  from  their  limita-  : 
tions  and  projects  personality  into  distant  lands.     It  is  ] 
the  lever  of  God  to  pry  continents  and  dead  civilizations  , 
up  into  newness  of  life.    It  is  the  power  which  helps  to  j 
lift  history  out  of  its  bed  and  puts  it  down  into  new  chan-  ; 
nels  where  it  belongs.     It  is  of  this  force  which  John  R. 
Mott  speaks  when  he  says:  "The  supreme  question  of 
missions  is  how  to  multiply  the  number  of   Christians 
who,  with  truthful  lives  and  with  clear  unshaken  faith  ' 
in  the  character  and  ability  of  God,  will,  individually  or  j 
collectively,  or  cooperatively  as  a  church,  wield  the  force  i 
of  intercessory  prayer  for  the  conversion  and  transfor- 
mation of  men,  for  the  inauguration  and  energizing  of  j 
spiritual  movements,  and  for  the  breaking  down  of  all  ] 
that  exalts  itself  against  Christ  and  his  purposes."  I 

J.    Campbell   White  says:     "Prayer   is  the   first  and  j 

chief  method  of  solving  the  missionary  problem.    Among  | 

all  the  methods  that  have  been  devised  none  is  more  ; 

practical,  more  fruitful  than  this.     If  we  could  get  a  | 

definite  group  of  people  at  home  into  the  habit  of  sup-  [ 


A  Man's  Response  to  the  World  Appeal     105 

porting  by  prayer  each  missionary  in  the  thick  of  the 
fight,  by  this  simple  method  alone  the  efficiency  of  the 
present  missionary  force  could  probably  be  doubled  with- 
out adding  a  single  new  missionary." 

In  bringing  in  a  report  on  the  place  of  prayer  in  mis- 
sions, a  committee  of  men  at  one  of  the  conferences  of 
the  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement  submitted  the  fol- 
lowing: "Prayer  is  the  only  element  which  can  quicken 
information  into  inspiration,  transmute  interest  into  pas- 
sion, crystallize  emotion  into  consecration,  and  coin  en- 
thusiasm into  dollars  and  lives.  Resolved,  that  we  seek 
by  every  means  to  convince  every  man  that,  whatever 
may  be  his  contribution  of  money  or  service,  he  has  not 
exercised  his  highest  influence,  performed  hk  whole 
duty,  nor  enjoyed  his  highest  privilege  until  he  has  made 
definite,  believing  prayer  for  missions  a  part  of  his  daily 
Hfe." 

As  we  remember  Jesus  Christ,  and  recall  the  kind  of 
tasks  he  has  given  his  men  to  do,  the  kind  of  men  he 
expects  us  to  be,  as  we  lift  up  our  eyes  and  look  into 
the  upturned  faces  of  the  thousand  millions  of  people 
who  know  not  God  and  remember  that  we  are  the  men 
who  must  bridge  the  racial  gulf  and  capture  the  world 
for  Christ,  we  may  well  be  moved  by  a  solemn  sense  of 
our  responsibility.  It  is  our  duty  not  simply  to  nurse  the 
wounded  but  to  stop  the  battle.  If  we  are  to  face  our 
tasks  with  inflexible  courage  and  a  growing  devotion  we 
must  cultivate  the  vital  processes  and  bring  to  Christ  the 
flawless  wholeness  of  unshared  hearts. 

One  of  tha  old  Greeks  said  that  every  speech  must 
begin  with  an  incontrovertible  proposition.  Three  such 
propositions  are  stated  here. 


io6  The  Call  of  the  World 

I.    Prayer  has  Called  Forth  and  Energised  All  the 
Great  Spiritual  and  Missionary  Movements  of  All  Times.  ; 

The  history  of  the  Moravian  movement,  of  the  great  \ 
missionary  awakenings  in  Germany,  and  the  modern  \ 
missionary  uprising  in  Great  Britain  shows  that  they  . 
were  all  born  and  given  power  because  of  prayer.  ' 

On  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  it  should  never  be  forgot-  | 
ten  that  the  three  great  interdenominational  movements  I 
w^hich  have  had  so  much  to  do  with  the  arousing  of  ! 
America  to  her  missionary  responsibility  were  all  called  j 
forth  by  prayer,  and  whatever  of  vitality  and  power  they  : 
have  displayed  still  depend  upon  the  energies  of  God 
poured  forth  in  answer  to  prayer.  The  Student  i 
Volunteer  Movement  grew  out  of  an  unusual  vol-  : 
ume  of  intercession  on  the  part,  first,  of  a  small  group  \ 
of  individuals,  and  then  of  a  conference  assembled  at 
Northfield  in  1886.  It  was  from  a  small  group  of  men  ■ 
meeting  for  prayer  and  counsel  in  New  York  and  later  .1 
at  Silver  Bay  on  Lake  George  that  the  Missionary  Edu-  \ 
cation  Movement  came  into  being.  It  was  in  a  prayer-  i 
meeting  in  the  Fifth  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church  in  I 
New  York  City,  on  November  15,  1906,  that  the  Lay-  . 
men's  Missionary  Movement  began  its  career.  j 

Two  principles  have  been  increasingly  emphasized  in  \ 
all  these  movements,  and  men  may  well  take  them  to  j 
heart  and  ponder  them  deeply  before  deciding  that  there  : 
is  any  other  way  in  which  they  can  exert  so  powerful  a  i 
world  influence  as  in  prayer.    These  principles  are:  '< 

God  has  accomplished  most  by  the  men  zvho  have  ad-  \ 
ventured  themselves  inost  upon  God. 

Men  must  commune  with  Christ  if  they  are  to  com-  i 
municate  Christ.  ^ 

I 


A  Man's  Response  to  the  World  Appeal     107 

2.  Prayer  Finds  a  Way  Out  in  Hours  of  Crisis. 
The    history    of    the    way    in    which    victory    has 

been  achieved  in  the  great  spiritual  crises  of  the 
world  is  a  record  of  answered  prayer.  There  is 
no  more  impressive  picture  in  the  Old  Testament 
than  that  of  Moses,  the  great  leader  of  Israel, 
in  the  midst  of  a  desperate  battle  with  his  hands 
lifted  in  intercession.  When  he  .  wearied  and  his 
hands  were  withdrawn,  Israel  was  defeated,  but  so 
long  as  his  hands  were  upheld  and  there  was  an  unceas- 
ing stream  of  intercession,  Israel  prevailed.  Crowded 
into  that  one  incident  is  one  of  the  greatest  single  spirit- 
ual lessons  which  God  would  teach  mankind.  There  is 
no  other  way  than  this  to  meet  the  spiritual  crises  of  the 
world  victoriously.  The  great  battle  of  Jesus  was  not 
won  at  Calvary  but  in  the  garden  in  prayer.  The 
crowded  record  of  achievement  in  all  the  home  and  for- 
eign mission  fields  of  the  Church  is  full  of  incidents  of 
the  truth  of  the  principle  just  stated.  Since  it  is  the 
judgment  of  the  missionary  leaders  of  to-day  that  there 
never  has  been  such  an  hour  of  crisis  and  opportunity 
in  the  world,  then  there  never  was  a  time  when  there 
was  such  need  that  men  should  covenant  with  God  to 
wield  the  force  of  intercession.  The  victory  which  is 
achieved  at  the  front  of  the  battle  will  be  commensurate 
with  the  volume  of  intercession  in  Christian  lands. 

3.  Prayer  is  the  Only  Pozver  that  can  Fill  the  Gaps 
in  the  Thin  Line  of  Battle. 

The  second  study  in  this  little  book  reveals  the 
tremendous  unmet  need  of  the  world.  The  line 
is  very  thin  in  many  parts  of  the  field,  in  many  sec- 
tions of  the  world  it  can  be  said  to  be  nothing  more 


io8  The  Call  of  the  World 

than  a  picket-line.  If  qualified  leaders  are  to  be  thrust 
out  into  these  fields,  if  the  Church  is  to  recover  the  lost 
frontiers  in  the  great  cities  and  country  districts  of  the 
home  land  and  in  the  Mohammedan  and  pagan  world 
abroad,  if  every  man  in  the  world  is  to  be  given  an  ade- 
quate opportunity  in  his  lifetime  to  know  our  Christ, 
then  the  great  crucial  problem  is  how  to  multiply  the 
number  of  those  who  will  enlist  as  intercessors  and  then 
devote  themselves  to  the  enlistment  of  others  until  the 
whole  Church  is  committed  to  this  task. 

Is  it  too  much  to  expect  that  every  man  in  his  place 
should  have  the  spirit  exhibited  by  Alexander  Dufif  when 
he  said:  "Having  set  my  hand  to  the  plough  my  resolu- 
tion was,  the  Lord  helping  me,  never  to  look  back  any 
more  and  never  to  make  a  half-hearted  work  of  it.  Hav- 
ing chosen  missionary  labor  in  India,  I  gave  myself  up 
wholly  to  it  in  the  destination  of  my  own  mind.  I  united 
or  wedded  myself  to  it  in  a  covenant  the  bands  of  which 
shall  be  severed  only  by  death  ?" 

May  our  Living  Leader  give  to  his  men  the  spirit  ex- 
pressed by  Edmund  Burke  when  he  said:  'The  nerve 
that  never  relaxes,  the  eye  that  never  blenches,  the 
thought  that  never  wanders:  these  are  the  masters  of 
destiny." 

In  Ladd's  Rare  Days  in  Japan,  reference  is  made 
to  a  telegram  received  by  Mr.  Matsukata,  the  President 
of  the  shipbuilding  company  at  Kawasaki,  from  Admiral 
Togo  just  two  days  before  the  battle  of  the  Sea  of 
Japan.  Admiral  Togo  had  received  the  following  order 
from  the  Emperor:  "Find  and  destroy  the  Rus- 
sian fleet."  Because  of  the  weight  of  his  responsibility 
it  is  said  that  Togo  ate  or  slept  but  little  for  several  days 


A  Man's  Response  to  the  World  Appeal     109 

after  receiving  the  Emperor's  order.  His  mind  must 
have  been  filled  with  thoughts  such  as  these :  "Where  was 
the  Russian  fleet?  Where  could  he  find  it?  And  if  he 
did  find  it,  how  could  he  destroy  it?"  In  those  hours  of 
anxiety  he  formed  one  plan  and  abandoned  it,  thought 
out  another  scheme  and  gave  it  up.  Finally  he  deter- 
mined upon  his  course  of  action  and  wired  Mr.  Matsu- 
kata,  "After  a  thousand  different  thoughts  now  one  fixed 
purpose." 

There  are  a  thousand  demands  upon  the  time  and 
strength  of  the  modern  man.  They  are  bewildering  and 
often  conflicting.  The  Christian  man  is  not  less  busy 
than  the  man  of  the  world,  and  insistent  calls  are  ring- 
ing in  his  ears  every  hour.  The  Church  is  increasingly 
needing  his  strength  and  leadership.  The  state  calls,  the 
city  makes  large  drafts  on  his  strength.  What  shall  he 
do?  What  causes  are  most  worth  while?  How  shall  he 
spend  his  energy  and  his  money?  What  is  the  most  al- 
luring task?  Let  him  choose  the  highest  and  the  great- 
est way  to  spend  his  life.  If  the  missionary  principle  is 
not  unalterably  entrenched  in  the  citadel  of  your  life 
will  yon  not  resolve  before  you  put  this  book  dozvn  that 
henceforth  all  life  shall  be  built  around  the  one  purpose 
zvhich  is  most  worth  while; — to  let  life  run  out  to  the  end 
rich  and  deep  and  full  in  the  plans  of  God  for  the  world f 

Breathe  through  the  heats   of  our  desire 
Thy  coolness  and  Thy  balm; 
Let  sense  be  dumb,  let  flesh  retire, 
Speak  through  earthquake,  wind,  and  fire, 
O  still  small  voice  of  calm. 

In  simple  trust  like  those  who  heard 
Beside  the  Syrian  Sea, 


no  The  Call  of  the  World 

The  gracious  calling  of  the  Lord, 
Let  us,  like  them,  without  a  word 
Rise  up  and  follow  Thee. 

"After   a   Thousand   Different    Thoughts   Now 
One  Fixed  Purpose/' 


A  Man's  Response  to  the  World  Appeal      hi 


INDISPENSABLE  LITERATURE  FOR  MISSIONARY  j 

COMMITTEES  j 

The  Church  Missionary  Committee,  Missionary  Educa-  I 

tion  Movement,   156  Fifth  Avenue,   New  York,  5  i 

cents  each.  j 
Manual   of    Missionary   Methods,   J.    Campbell   White, 

Laymen's  Missionary  Movement,   i   Madison  Ave-  | 

nue.  New  York,  5  cents  each.  j 

What  Can  the  Missionary  Committee  Do?     Laymen's  i 

Missionary    Movement,    i    Madison   Avenue,    New  | 

York,  5  cents  each. 
Essentials  in  an  Adequate  Plan  of  Missionary  Finance. 

Laymen's  Missionary  Movement,  i  Madison  Avenue,  ] 

New  York,     i  cent  each. 

Prayer  and    Missions.     A   packet   of   nine   pamphlets.  ' 

Laymen's  Missionary  Movement,  i  Madison  Avenue,  ; 

New  York.    25  cents  per  packet.  ^ 

Stewardship.    A  packet  of  thirteen  booklets  and  leaflets.  \ 

Laymen's  Missionary  Movement,  i  Madison  Avenue, 

New  York.    50  cents  per  packet. 


Princeton  Theoloqical  ,,SemnW  Librari^^^ 


1012  01203  2845 


.iiS^^;' 


